Take A Chance On Me: Chapter 8
Chapter 8: How Can I Tell You?
Jake spent a little more time at his parents house before returning to the garage with Chance, while he was away Chance ran the garage by himself, he had gotten use to it over the past couple of weeks. He also had to run solo as being a SWAT Kat while Jake was healing, but lately there hasn't been anything too serious to deal with, only some burglars and Hard Drive here and there, but Chance was able to handle it all. Then the garage started to get more business when cars got wrecked during one of the dog fights with the TurboKat and its enemies. There were some nights when Chance missed some well deserved sleep over his patrols and missions, also dealing with Feral's excuse for pilots in his fleets, but it was easy for Chance to handle. It was the middle of March when Jake was prepared to head back to the garage with Chance; he stood at the front door of the mansion getting his final goodbye hugs form his mother.
"Now you come back and visit any time baby and we'll be here waiting" Ms. Clawson said fixing Jake's hair. Jake just got into Callie's car and they both drove off the property.
"I'm so glad you're all better now, Chance has been working a lot at the garage and I'm sure he could use your help" Callie said as she made a right turn onto the main road to get back to the junkyard, Jake was a little spaced out but was brought back to reality as she made the turn. "You sure have been quiet, you don't seem excited to see your husband again" Callie said shooting a glance at Jake.
"Oh it's not that, I just threw up again this morning before breakfast. That's the 3rd time this week I've vomited in the morning, and then once again in the night time. Then there have been these really bad cramps, I think its just gas but man there's a lot of it lately" Jake said as he gave a slight cough covering his mouth. Callie looked back at the road and continued to drive, swerving past a couple of slow cars, Jake put his hand to his forehead. He never got car sick before, but he was sure feeling it as the car moved quickly on the road, Jake closed his eyes and lowered his ears. Callie turned to an exit and entered a small area of the city and pulled into the parking lot of a mini mart.
"Come one, we'll pick up some pizza for you guys. That should cheer your upset stomach a bit" Callie said getting out of the car. Jake followed her inside the market; he could hear her car alarm being set as the shekat clicked the button on her keychain. Jake grabbed a small basket and they walked through the isles, he should have gotten an actual cart since Callie decided to actually buy them groceries instead of a couple of food items. They had half a cart full of drinks and fruits, some meat and boxes of snacks including hygiene items for their bathroom. Callie and Jake came into the shekat and toms personal items isles, looking at the variety of vitamins, hair curls, massage tools, hair sprays, deodorant, and pregnancy tests. Jake took one of the pregnancy tests and brought it close to Callie's face.
"Hey look Callie, remember that time you...." Jake was cut off as Callie looked at what he was holding and gasped.
"Jake Ferlong! You said you wouldn't bring that time I thought I was pregnant!" Callie gasped as she tried to grab the box from Jake, but he snatched it back.
"Oh I didn't, you just did" Jake laughed, receiving a slap on the arm from his friend and she took the cart and continued on. Jake put the box back and noticed one for male kats. He looked around to make sure no one was coming and picked it up. He looked at it and it seemed like the ones for shekats; then looked at the back instructions and warning signs if a tom was going to have a child. "Let's see: Nausea, increased appetite.....headaches, vomiting.......irregular.....sleeping patterns" Jake read on noticing he was experiencing these symptoms recently, Jake quietly took the box with him, hiding it with his hands from his friend Callie. She was looking at some packets of toilet paper, Jake dug his hand to the bottom of the cart the best he could and hid it underneath come cereal. When they were done shopping they started to check out at the register, Jake saw Callie start to empty out the cart and got a little nervous.
"Man, whoever thought we were going to get so much stuff?" She laughed getting near the bottom finally.
"Hey Callie.....let me take care of this while you get the car" Jake said, she didn't object and gave Jake her card to pay for everything. Jake sighed as she left the mini-mart, then he continued to put everything on the belt as it ran through the scanner. Once he finished paying he brought the cart of bags outside and loaded them into the car that was parked out front. He finished putting everything in and got back inside the car as it drove out of the parking lot and onto the main road again. Once they got to the front of the garage Jake hurried to the car door and ran inside the garage, Chance wasn't in there though working on anything.
"Hey Jake, come help me with the groceries" Callie screamed. With that the burly golden tabby ran through the front door thinking Jake would be there waiting for him.
"Hey.....you just got me out of my nap to help you with those!" Chance glanced at Callie holding two bags in her arms, he suddenly felt something wrap around his waist and turned around to see Jake giving him a hug and smiling.
"That and to tell you Jake is here" Callie laughed, Chance returned the hug back and went to help them put the food inside the kitchen, once they were finished Callie sat down on one of the chairs and took a breather. Chance started to put the food away, he had already gone through 3 bags and had another 5 more to go.
"Where did Jake go?" Callie asked.
"I dunno, he took something from one of these bags; then ran up to the bathroom. He must have bought a new air freshener or something" Chance laughed as he put a 6 pack of canned milk in the fridge. Thank you again for all the food Callie...but why the spending spree on us?"
"Well last time I was here you guys didn't have a lot to munch on. Besides that money seemed real tight at the time" She explained opening a car on milk from another bag and taking a sip.
"You know, you're a saint Callie" Chance smiled going through his 4th bag. Meanwhile, in the bathroom Jake was reading the directions on how to use the device in the box. He had already urinated in the little opening where he was suppose to, now there was that dreadful minute of waiting for the results. He placed the device atop the toilet seat along with the box and began the waiting process. Jake paced the bathroom floor in a small circle, looking at his watch and seeing the second hand taking forever to get back to the 12. He could hear Callie and Chance talking a bit downstairs, but drowned it out when he was looking at himself in the mirror, fixing his fur and making sure there wasn't anything caught in his teeth from breakfast. Finally he looked back at his watch and noticed he went over by 5 second, he picked up the device from atop the toilet seat and looked at it, then took the box in his other hand to see what the symbol meant. Jake looked for the toilet seat and sat down, placing his hands on his lap, these tests were 99% correct most of the time and today Jake just found out that he'll be having a kitten or two within the next 9 months. There was a knocking on the door which caused the chocolate colored tom jump a bit and he tried to put the device in the box and in the trash can.
"Jake? You alright in there buddy? Callie had to leave but she gave me the medications your doctor left for you, says you should take one after a meal so I made you your favorite sandwich downstairs. Come on out and take a bite" Chance said, Jake could hear his footsteps going back downstairs and then back outside to the garage. Jake got up from his seat and opened the door, the house was empty. Jake went downstairs into the kitchen; on the table was the sandwich Chance had told him about with a glass of milk and a small blue pill on a napkin next to the glass. Jake sat down at the table and began to eat, staring off into space as he was chewing on his food and taking small sips of his drink. How would he break the news to Chance that he was carrying his kitten? Or Kittens? Would he wish to keep them? Were they both ready to be parents? Jake put his half eaten sandwich down and got up from the table and went to the garage door, he opened it to see Chance taking out the transmission of a car and lowering it to the floor. Chance stood up straight to brush his head of sweat, leaving a black streak across his forehead in the process; Jake just smiled at the sight and leaned against the frame of the door. Chance saw Jake in the doorway and smiled.
"Hey there lovely, how was your meal?"
"Fine, I wasn't too hungry though. I was just wondering how you were doing and all." Jake smiled as Chance walked over to him after closing the garage doors, he could finish the transmission tomorrow. He wrapped one arm around Jake's waist as he led them both inside before turning off the lights in the garage, they both went to the t.v room and sat down on the couch. Chance laid his leg spread out on the couch and his other touching the floor, Jake sat in between and they both started to watch some Litterman, though it wasn't Chance's favorite show, he could stand it for an hour.
"Is there something wrong with you? Maybe still a little bit sick babe?" Chance asked.
"I think I might know what's wrong with me, but its something real big...not life threatening of course but something that could change out lives" With that Chance's ears rose up and looked down at his mate.
"What do you mean Jake?" Chance asked putting his hands on Jake's shoulders, he was really worried now. Before Jake could open his mouth, the alarm went off and they both looked at the phone. Jake was the first one out of the couch as he ran over to answer the phone.
"Yes Ms. Briggs?"
"Razor, Dark Kat is attacking Megakat city with his creeplings. We need your hel...." With that Ms. Briggs was cut off, the only thing that was heard in the background was screaming and the laughter of the tiny creeplings fading away from Ms. Briggs communicator.
"Ms. Briggs?!?!" Razor yelled, he hug up the phone and headed towards the hanger where Chance had gone to change into his flight suit. Jake came down the ladder to see T-Bone already changed and ready to his the skies as he jumped inside the TurboKat. Razor got his suit on and put his helmet over his bandanna before hoping into the jet behind his partner. The elevator rose the TurboKat from the subbasement as the engines roared, then the elevator stopped T-Bone pushed the lever to maximum and a rush of gravity hit both kats as the TurboKat ran through the tunnel and hit to the skies above, their destination was downtown where Ms. Briggs signal came from. Moments later after they arrived in the city they could see fires started on the streets from the explosions made by Dark Kats armored tank. One the TurboKat got close enough the tank aimed for it and fired a barrage of laser. T-Bone was able to maneuver through most of the shots only receiving a few hits to their wing.
"Blasted SWAT Kats!" Dark Kat yelled as he smashed the console inside the tank with his fist, Ms. Briggs and Ann Gora were tied up behind him surrounded by creeplings. Both of them tried to scream, but their cries were muffled by cloths that covered their mouths. Meanwhile outside of the tank, the TurboKat continued to out manuver the lasers and fire back some missiles, but they had no affect on the tanks armor.
"Crud Razor, we gotta think of something to disable that tank or we wont last much longer up here" T-Bone said managing another barrel roll in the sky, avoiding two heat seeking missiles the tank launched at them, both turned around and followed the TurboKat again. Razor noticed that the tank didn't have a lot of armor plating on the bottom.
"Hey, I'm gonna go out on the TurboCycle and head under that behemoth. I could get in and start doing some real damage" Razor said about to launch himself out of the TurboKat. He was all buckled in and typed his last commands into his computer console before leading back and dropping a bit into the hull of the jet.
"Just be careful" Chance said before the hatch closed. The doors underneath Jake's seat opened and he fell out of the armored shell towards the ground, the armor retracted as the TurboCycle was exposed. Jake took the handles and fired up the engines before hitting the ground at a high speed heading directly towards the tank. The laser cannons pointed towards razor and fired, razor was able to out run the shots before heading underneath the hovering hank, air pushed him down some as he lifted his hand with the Glovetrix on it. The device fired his grappling wire and clinged to the armor hatched before lifting Razor up, the TurboCycle continued to operate on automatic driver and it moved from under the tank. Jake grabbed onto the armor hatch while he activated the laser in his glove to make a small opening so he could get in. Meanwhile in the skies, T-Bone did his best to get rid of the heat seeking missiles that didn't let up their persuit. The TurboKat started to decline to its side, T-Bone saw that the cycle was not being driven by Razor; he must have found a way inside. While T-Bone was distracted, one of the heat seeking missiles made a direct hit to the left wing, causing the TurboKat to spin out of control, T-Bone grabbed the throttle and tried to even out the weight of the jet to stay in the sky a little longer. Meanwhile, Razor had entered the tank and started to search for Dark Kat. There was an empty corridor that was dark and damp, it smelled like there was oil on the ground, Razor made his way quickly to the other side and noticed a crack on the door. He peeked inside to see Callie and Ann Gora tied up, not to mention Dark Kat at the controls. Razor hit the communicator button on his helmet to contract his partner.
"T-Bone, I found Dark Kat and he has Ms. Briggs and Ann Gora. Where are you?"
"I'm hit pretty badly out here Razor, do what you can to get them out while I try to land this thing and not explode in the process" T-Bone said, his voice was cut off a bit by the static between them, Razor had to cup his ear to listen to the message. There was a bright light suddenly behind him and a tug at his uniform, Dark Kat had intercepted their message and grabbed Razor by the suit collar,, tossing him to one of the metal panels. "Razor.......Razor come in" T-Bone yelled into his headset. Razor stood on all fours shaking his head; he looked over to his right to see Dark Kat standing tall with two creeplings at his side.
"So SWAT Kat, you've managed to get by my radar, but not by me!" He laughed as his creeplings attacked Razor. Razor flipped one over his head before the other one grabbed onto his arm, another at his leg, then more appeared out of the darkness holding the SWAT Kat down on the floor. "What a fool to think you could stop me single handedly" Dark Kat mocked as he stepped onto Razor's chest applying pressure on the kat, causing a yelp to escape his lips. "Do not worry, once I'm finished with your partner outside, I'll finish with you and Megakat city all together," With that, he kicked Razor hard on his side causing him to fly to the wall and falling to the floor again gasping and hissing at the pain, Ms. Briggs and Ann Gora turned away shutting their eyes from the sight of their hero being kicked around by the taller villain. Dark Kat went over to his computer console and pressed a couple of buttons, firing the laser again at the Turbokat, some landing on the engines and others on the operating wing. Razor slowly got to his hands and knees to look at the screen. T-Bone was in trouble and he didn't look like he was going to last much longer. One of the creeplings suddenly got on Razor's back trying to get him down again, but Razor grabbed onto the little legs ans twirled the little monster around in a circle knocking back the other creeplings. Then he launched the creature at Dark Kat who feel forward onto the computer console, Razor quickly went over to the captive kats and freed them from their binds.
"Quickly, there's a rope that'll take you out of the tank. But be careful" Ms. Briggs and Ann nodded knowing it was bad to decline at a moment like this, they quickly went through the passage as the automatic door closed behind them. Razor turned around to see Dark Kat blasting his own creepling off of him and over-towering the smaller SwatKat.
"Meddling SWAT Kat!!!" Dark Kat screamed as he blasted some energy beams at Razor from his hands, barely dodging them without bumping into something. "How dare you interrupt my plans to rule over MegaKat City" Dark Kat continued his assault, now picking up his cane and swinging it at the smaller vigilante. Razor managed to leap through Dark Kats legs and quickly crawled over to the control panel, he stood up puffing air as his attacker turned around to strike him. Razor jumped as the cane smashed into the computer console shocking Dark Kat for a moment before blasting his back to the wall, all the computer screens were beginning to fry and Razor began to head to the door, but not after receiving a blast to his side from Dark Kat. Razor fell to the floor sliding into the automatic doors as it opened up, he was able to slide through before standing back up and limping down the corridor in pain. Razor saw his hole on the ground, viewing the outside he grabbed onto the rope and started to slowly descending onto the ground. There was a loud explosion above his head, fire followed soon after as it burnt the robe apart. Razor started to fall fast until he rolled onto the ground with his shoulder. Razor held his shoulder in pain as he saw the tank slowly drift downwards as large pieces of metal shot out from the inside. Another explosion after another until the large hovering tank finally crashed down onto the streets, breaking up the cement and crushing a few building sides along its path. The Enforcer choppers and tanks surrounded the hovering tank and the soldiers began their assault by going inside and capturing the creeplings. Razor suddenly felt a rush of air push him down, he looked up to see the TurboKat above him, a wire line with a grappling hook came to the ground and caught on Razor's outfit tight before lifting the injured Kat into his cockpit behind T-Bone.
"Razor! Are you alright buddy?!?!?" T-Bone looked behind his seat to see Razor leaning his head against the glass panting hard.
"Yeah, just a couple of scratches here and there Chance, nothing to worry about" Razor opened his eye and smiled at his love.
"DON'T EVER SCARE ME LIKE THAT AGAIN" T-Bone yelled as he brought the Turbo Kat higher in the sky before taking off back to the junkyard. Their jet needed some major repairs before it could go out on any missions again, it would take some time but the ole girl would be as good as new with time. T-Bone landed the jet inside their launch bay before it lowered into the subbasement, one the hatch opened T-Bone got out and went to the back seat to help Razor get out; but found was sound asleep. T-Bone lifted Razor into his arms and jumped off their working wing onto the ground. Looking down at his mate Chance played a kiss on his lips before walking back to the house with his uniform still on.
~ That Evening ~
Jake woke up in his room with a headache that could only be described as, "Monstrous". He had a bandage wrapped around his head, also along his rib cage. He could see his sides were a bit bruised up from the assault, but they would heal with time. Jake sat up rubbing his eyes, the moon was out already, Jake realized he slept through the whole afternoon. He slid himself to edge of the bed, feet touching the hardwood ground as he stretched his arms in the air and yawned, only to feel a rush of pain from his side and hugging his ribs hissing.
"Damn.....he really did a number on...." Jake stopped talking for a moment, remembering what he was going to tell chance before they went out on their mission, and what the test results showed. Jake slowly led his hands onto his stomach as he rubbed it a bit, he had forgotten all about it when they were out in the field fighting. Jake's eyes started to water as he though the worst for his newborn that was slowly growing inside of his body, Jake looked down onto his hands as they caressed his stomach. He knew nothing was wrong with his baby since it wasn't at the ending stage of growth and that it was still one of Chance's seed finding a place inside of Jake to rest before growing, but Jake still he felt a surge of sadness knowing he put his and Chance's kitten at risk to save the city. Tears poured out as Jake's closed his eyes when he moved to hug his ribs again, every time he took a deep breath it stung on the inside and hurt him so. So many things ran through his head and they wouldn't go away, Jake was confused, hut and alone. He needed Chance by his side, but he didn't know where his love was at the moment. Jake began to pant quickly as he opened his eyes to only see his empty room again, tears falling from his face onto his lap as Jake held onto the sheets of his bed before taking a big puff of air before screaming to the top of his lungs.
"CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANCE!!!!!" Jake broke down crying as he held onto his stomach again hurting all over, bent over a bit sitting up crying loudly hoping his love would come.