Chapter 25
The entire crew was on hand on the joyful morning when Rick was released from the hospital.
It was nearly an honor guard that wheeled Rick out to Martha's old van, and Rick paused to get hugs and shake paws of those around him. "Now you better get all those party streamers down by tomorrow, since I'll be back on Monday," he teased. "You'll have to go back to doing real work!"
"Why Rick, aren't you coming to the wrap meeting today?" Marty grinned.
"I'm afraid not, I'm on strict orders from someone more important than the doctors," he said, pointing at Martha.
"I want him to settle in before he starts going back to work," she said bluntly.
"So Savid and Kit are still your whipmasters 'til I'm back," Rick grinned.
"At least they let us play X-Box in the main room on the big TV," Jeffrey intoned.
"You weren't supposed to tell him that!" Lilly protested.
"So, Jessie, did Kit tell you what I had in mind?" Rick asked.
"Mmm-hmm," Jessie said. "I'll take the job. I'm not sure what kind of writer I can be, but I'll be glad to take the strip to a weekly. As long as you give me a raise," she winked.
"A raise and a promotion to full time. As far as what kind of writing you'll do, well, we'll talk about it later. Given the good work you do on the strip, I'm positive we can find something you'll be very good at. I've come to learn that English majors are good at writing."
"She can do the work, she just can't do it fast," Kit teased.
"I get all my homework done on time!" she protested, then she grinned lightly at him.
"Well, now she'll earn that big office we gave her," Barry teased. "She does one little strip a week and gets an office, and poor Sheila gets a desk out where Rick and Savid can stare at her butt."
"I stare at her profile, not her butt. She sit facing side to me, not back," Savid chuckled.
"Ten bucks, Savid, and you can see all my butt you want," Sheila teased.
"You get only five for showing Barry!"
"It's a seller's market, my dear mongoose," she winked. "Demand goes up, price goes up."
A couple of offended looking furs passing by glared at Sheila, which just made the whole gang laugh. "Alright, you bunch of freeloaders, get back to work!" Rick commanded. "We have an issue to put to bed today!"
"We have it all under control, you old dingo," Lilly smiled.
The day was just starting, but it was already good. Kit and Jessie both went back to the office, and after a little kissing and nuzzling in his office, she went to go talk to Jeffrey about expanding her strip to become a strip of its own while Kit went back to the mundane tasks. He'd cleared his own in-box of everything major, so he was just doing Rick's work today. They were all ready for the debate, Lilly, Marty, and Barry's work for next week had already been researched and readied for them, and Kit was running two pieces out of his journals for Through My Eyes next week to clear a little time for himself; Rick had told him to hold off on doing any writing for next week so he could get his house back in order after Rick came back on Monday. So, in actuality, Kit was looking at a pretty light couple of days work wise. He had only two meetings with potential advertisers on Friday, nothing at all really on the schedule for Saturday outside of accounting work that Rick told him not to do but would do anyway, and Sunday they'd be going to the beach. Today he'd have to close out the week after the wrap meeting, but outside of that, he was on cruise control today.
He did still have work, though, in what was unplanned. Kit fielded two calls for requests for reprints of their work, which Rick had already told him to accept. One of them was for Barry's interview of Senator Hutchison, but another was for Allison's article.
Kit got a little curious, then pulled up the records, then he blanched slightly. In the last month, the magazine had sold reprint leases to 37 different magazines, newspapers, or websites. 37. Dear God, that was a lot. Most of them were local, either in-state magazines or the Austin paper, the American-Statesman, but four pieces had been sold to national organizations. Reprint rights to Kit's article about Allison had been sold to Newsweek, and no doubt because of Rick's contacts with his old job. The Associated Press bought rights to Barry's interview with Senator Hutchison and Kit's interview with Representative Lamar Smith, and the Washington Post had bought reprint rights for the op-ed.
37 reprints. Holy cow. That was a hell of a lot. That was just a sign that Rick's plan to increase circulation was a very sound one, since this was the perfect time to expand. The magazine was on a hot streak, and they had to build a larger reader base. They needed more free units on campus, and they needed–
They needed sale units inside Austin.
This was the perfect time. Rick had never done sale units inside the city because they were free on campus, but Austin was a pretty big city. Sale units around the campus were a waste of time, but if they put sale units around Bergstrom, in north Austin, out near Pflugerville, over in the hill country to the west, out in the ranchlands to the east, now those would sell.
Kit was a researcher, and this was a good topic to research with his spare time.
He spent all morning on his project. He called around to inquire about interest among vendors. He studied population distribution of students who lived off campus, to avoid putting sale units near concentrations of student housing, as well as age distribution to target the magazine at the 18-34 crowd on which the magazine focused. He projected printing costs against possible profits to run a risk analysis, then called all of their active advertisers to gauge their reaction to an increase in circulation of sale units within the city, which would increase their fees… but also increase exposure of their advertising.
Every single one was enthusiastically for the idea, despite the increase in their own costs, since they advertised with Austin in mind.
By the wrap meeting, he had his entire idea thoroughly researched and analyzed, and he found that a large increase in circulation, while risky, was also the best approach and had the greatest chance of increasing their profits. They needed to get the magazine out while furs were interested, and that meant putting it in every bookstore, library, convenience store, even every bar they could find. Kit worked through the math and decided that a 150% increase in sale units distributed in a ring around campus, concentrated to the north, south, and west where there was a larger segment of younger furs than there was to the east, along the edges of the city, was the safest and most effective means to go about it… at least to him. Kit was no business major, but it was just common sense to avoid selling the magazine in areas where furs could either get it free or where those furs lived, since they could just give away their free copy after they were done with it.
Kit called their printer and inquired about whether they could handle such a huge increase in ordered units. "It'd push us, but I think we could do it," Dan said. "We'd have to print them in waves and ship them out, we couldn't have the entire order ready to go by seven a.m. like we usually do. Uh, are we talking over and above the current increase, or based on the old numbers?"
"I did the math based on the old numbers," Kit answered. "So, you can do it?"
"If you can find stands to put them on, we can print 'em," he said confidently.
After the wrap meeting, Kit called Rick. "I'm sending a file to your Blackberry," he said. "Download it to your laptop when you get it and take a look at it."
"What is it?"
"A business proposal," he said. "It's still tentative, but take a look at it and tell me what you think."
"Sure, I can do that, son. It'll give me something to do while Martha coddles me," he chuckled. "Send it off."
"It's on its way."
"How was the wrap meeting?"
"Everything went just fine. We didn't change it from what you saw yesterday. Jessie's been closeted up with Jeffrey all day, talking about taking the strip to a weekly. She's kinda hogging him, we still have some work to do on School Daze."
Rick laughed. "I'm still not sure what kind of feature she'll do."
"How did Denise take your offer?"
"She said yes so fast I think she sprained her tongue," Rick answered. "And if we're lucky, we'll have a staff photographer by next Friday."
"That'll be useful," Kit agreed. "Mike?"
"He's probably in his office right now planning his first article," Rick chuckled. "Holy–how long did you work on this, son?" Rick asked in surprise.
"Almost all morning. It's just a rough draft," he said quickly. "I called around, did some math, and looked into a few things."
"Dear God, son, I knew you were a good researcher, but damn," Rick said quietly. "I'll crunch your numbers and see if mine match yours. If they do, this might be worth a shot. It'll cost some serious cash for the expansion, though, and we'll have to do some major legwork to get the magazine on racks out there."
"I'll have another seven thousand available by Tuesday," Kit said. "That should keep us out of the red ink until things stabilize and we find out if it's profitable. If not, we can scale back and eat the loss."
"If we can sustain circulation, it won't be a loss for long," Rick said. "If we can push even half this circulation on the sale units, we'll earn the investment back inside three weeks."
"It's a gamble," Kit said honestly. "But this is the perfect time to try, Rick. Almost past time. If we don't try something bold while interest is peaked, while so many other mags and papers are buying our work to reprint, we'll miss our opportunity."
"We'll see how the twenty percent increase goes this week," Rick said. "If that does well, then we'll take a long hard look at your idea. You've seen the books, son. If we overreach, the magazine is out of business."
"I know. That's why I said it was a gamble," he said calmly.
"It might be a gamble worth taking. We'll see," he said.
Kit felt relaxed by the time it was beach time.
It was a good morning to fly, clear and warm for March, though there were a few sleepy girls in the plane with him. At seven they were in the air and on the way to Brownsville, and to be fair about things, Allison rode up front, since she'd been in the back both times last time they flew. She was her usual quiet self, though she was still not entirely awake. Jessie was in the back with her laptop, working on her strip, while Sheila slept in the seat behind Allison.
Sheila had rented a car for them, so they brought actual stuff with them. They had a cooler for drinks and light snacks they'd buy in Brownsville, and everyone brought one change of clothes, just in case they wanted to go somewhere that frowned upon bathing suits. Everyone was literally in their suits already with shorts and tees worn over them, Jessie's floppy straw hat in the open cargo area behind the back seat, though Sheila was wearing nothing but a little shoulder wrap that showed off her rather skimpy black bikini top.
Sheila was highly displeased with Jessie's choice of bathing suits. She was wearing the same sensible two piece she'd warn during their scuba excursion in the keys. It was a sleek little suit, showing off her sexy torso, but the sports-bra style halter top and sensible bottom did not sit well with Sheila at all. She wanted Jessie in a G-string and pasties, or just about the same thing, and rallied for nearly ten minutes to have Jessie buy a "better bikini" while they were at the beach… something Sheila would pick out for her that would no doubt mortify Jessie for a month after even thinking of putting it on.
Everyone was awake and alert by the time they landed, though. Kit paid to park the plane at a tie down spot and they climbed out, locking Jessie's laptop up in the cargo hold as Sheila went to go get the rental car. Kit had the plane tied down by the time Sheila got back to them, parking at a lot across from the plane–cars weren't allowed on the tarmac in the visiting tie downs at the airport–and they carried their cooler and wicker bag full of their stuff. Inside it were their sunglasses, changes of clothes, a little cash, and Sheila's wallet. Sheila agreed to pay for everything but parking the plane, since Kit flew them down. Paying for the rental car, parking, and everything else was Sheila's responsibility.
"Let's go!" she said, honking her horn. "I know the beaches will be empty, but let's at least get there before the drunk naked coeds wake up and stagger back to their rooms!"
Sheila was close to right. They got the car parked and got out to the beach around 8:30, and they had the place more or less to themselves. There were very few furs out and about, since it was very early for the college crowd… though it wouldn't be totally empty. Not every college did spring break the same week, so while U.T.'s spring break was ending, other schools' breaks were just beginning. Today would be a huge turnaround day for the island, as some college kids left and new ones came to take their places. Kit and Sheila both figured that they'd have about four hours of peace and quiet before the beach started filling up, which would be more than enough time for Kit and Jessie to actually swim.
They got to do that. The water wasn't all that warm, and there weren't any waves, but it was still nice to float lazily in the clear water. He and Jessie swam a while as Sheila and Allison guarded their spot on the beach, laying out in the warm sun in their spaghetti strap bikinis and garnering about every male eye on the beach, until they'd had about enough. They came out and scrubbed the water out of their fur, which made Sheila giggle a little.
"You two look terrible," she teased. "And your fur's gonna be all chalky when the salt dries in it."
"Well, I brought a comb for a reason," Jessie winked, fishing a big comb out of the bag.
"Sheila, if you pull your bottoms down any further, you won't really have any reason to wear them," Kit noted clinically.
Sheila laughed and looked up at him. "Hush and let me enjoy myself."
"Such an exhibitionist," Kit accused with a chuckle.
They didn't stay in one spot on the beach all day. After a while, after some beach volleyball, lunch, and a lazy hour or two dozing in the warm sun, they packed their things and put them in the car then went out to enjoy what the beach had to offer. They went shopping on a boardwalk, and Allison got talked into going on a parasailing ride by Sheila. Jessie took quite a few pictures of her flying along behind the boat. The two vixens had their "who can show the most white fur" competition early that afternoon, as well. Kit and Jessie just got a good distance from the two of them as they very nearly got arrested for indecent exposure by a bike patrol. Their bikinis were very skimpy to begin with, both of them wearing thong bottoms, and with less total material on their bra tops than a dinner napkin, and both of them were very brazen about pushing what little they were wearing as far as they could get it to go without exposing themselves. Sheila was no chicken, but she was dealing with someone who used to strip for a living, so Sheila lost that little contest. Sheila could show as much as Allison given the rules, but she couldn't strut the way Allison could, move with that total sensuality, that utter ripe promise to rock a male's world, the slightest tilt of her hips promising the darkest delights. It was the challenging strut of a stripper who knew she had the hottest body on the beach. Allison's strut just owned every male eye on the beach, admittedly, even Kit's… much to Jessie's dismay. Kit wheezed a little when Jessie elbowed him in the ribs.
"Give her the crown, cousin. You got your tail whipped," Kit teased when they came back to them.
"Yeah yeah, maybe I'll go to the Top Hat on member's challenge night and work on my walk," she grunted, giving Allison a slightly annoyed look.
"You may call me your Majesty," Allison said in her quiet manner, which made Kit explode into laughter.
"I'll call you a bitch, Ally," Sheila grinned.
"I've been called worse by meaner furs than you," she returned with a slight smile and a shrug of her shoulders.
Sheila treated them to a nice meal at a beachside restaurant, then they went to a beach party hosted by one of the clubs on the island. While Sheila and Allison tormented males and made females very jealous by playing volleyball, Kit and Jessie sat at a table. "Alright, you can put your eyes back in your head, handsome fox," she told him tartly.
He laughed. "I can't deny she's beautiful, love, but she's not you," he told her, kissing her on the muzzle. "You could totally kick her ass in a game of 'who can show the most white fur,' cause you're way sexier than she is."
"No, I could never do, that," she said, her cheeks ruffling.
"You've put her to shame when we're in the bedroom," Kit winked. "And who said you had to play the game in public?"
She gave him a speculative look. "I think you're just being nice."
He snorted. "I had my chance with her, if you recall, and I said no. So what does that tell you?"
"That you were too afraid of what Vil would do to you if your ruined our wedding?"
Kit laughed. "I love to see you jealous," he told her. "It tells me I'm still your number one."
"You always will be," she told him. "And I have to keep myself on the top of your list when you have her tempting you," she said, motioning at Allison.
"How can I be tempted by what I see as second best to what I already have? Yes, she's beautiful, pretty kitty. I admit it. She's probably the second most beautiful femme I've ever known… but guess what? You're on the top of that list. You don't have to do a thing to stay there, love, just be yourself. There's nothing sexier on earth than that."
"I just wish you were jealous," she said, a bit accusingly.
"Oh, I'm jealous, love, but I keep it in here," he said, tapping his chest. "I'm not like you. You're a knockout, pretty kitty, one of the most beautiful femmes there is. You don't have to have me tell you that either, you know it. You're beautiful. Just look around. The males stare at you, the femmes give you dirty looks, just like they do Allison and Sheila. But you put Sheila to shame, and Allison can't quite reach your level. I'm, well, plain. I'm not really all that handsome, I have funny eyes, I have a bad back, I'm missing part of my ear, and I have these," he said, holding up his scarred left arm, where white fur marred the red fur on his forearm, jagged lines of white streaking down into the dark-furred mitten on his left wrist and paw. "I know I can't hold a candle to the males you went to see at the Top Hat, but I just have to trust you, trust that you'll come back to me when you go out the door. I know you could have any male you wanted, any time. No male could ever resist you. I can't help but feel jealous knowing that, but I know that the only thing I can do is show you how much faith I have in you, how much I trust you, how much I love you, and hope that it keeps you with me. I just have faith that you love me as much as I love you, and I try to show you that even though I have a friend like Allison, someone almost as pretty as you, I'd never break my wedding vows, because you are my entire life. I'll always be by your side, for as long as you'll have me."
She gave him a long, tender look, then leaned over the table and kissed him lovingly on the nose. "You are the most handsome male I have ever known, my love," she told him with honest eyes. "These aren't scars, to me, they're beauty marks," she said, touching his arm. "And you'll never get rid of me. When we find our male, we Williams femmes dig in our claws and never let go. Just look at my mom and dad," she said with a light yet loving smile.
"I'm easy prey to keep, pretty kitty. I won't struggle."
"That's a good thing," she said with a light whisper, then she kissed him. It was one of her special kisses, a kiss he was surprised she'd give him in public, and God, was he glad he was already sitting down. All sound seemed to turn off, and all he could sense was her, her lips on his, her paw touching his arm. When she broke the kiss, he was all but leaning into it, and he was a little disappointed that she ended it as his brain restarted. "So, I'm your number one?" she asked with a slight smile.
"The one and only," he said breathlessly.
The intimate mood was broken when Sheila and Allison came back to the table, Sheila a little out of breath. "Well, that was more fun than I expected," she laughed. "Allison popped out of her top jumping up to spike the ball," she winked.
"And I was too busy kissing my wife to see it. Darn," Kit said in a deadpan voice. "Oh, wait, I have a picture showing so much more."
Allison and Sheila laughed, and to his surprise, so did Jessie. "I forgot you have that," Allison said.
"One of the few left. There were only a few of them to start with, and the rest were deleted because of the potential scandal involved. You know, a Vulpan caught on camera like that. I've got the only copy I know of left, and I keep it in a very safe place," he said carefully.
"Well, I'm glad to hear that. That would be a little… embarrassing, if it came out at the wrong time."
"Well, I still have my copy, but I don't keep it where just anyone can find it," Sheila admitted. "And I'll keep it as long as Kit keeps my picture."
"Forever, then," he grinned at her. "I can't lose my blackmail material."
"You learned way too much from Vil," Sheila accused, then she grinned. "Seven days," she said with a little trill in her voice.
"I already told you, it'll be a party at home during poker," Kit told her. "Lupe's already planning it, and I told him I don't want anything outrageous."
"Oh, my plans start after the kiddie party," she grinned. "I'm just glad you have Monday off. You'll be in no condition to work the next day."
"When is your birthday, Jessie?" Allison asked curiously.
"Not 'til July," she laughed. "I'm a patriotic femme, I was born on July fifth, ten minutes after midnight. Ten minutes from the big day," she laughed.
"Well, that's always easy for furs to remember," Allison chuckled. "What about you, Sheila?"
"September twenty-seventh," she answered. "You?"
"August thirtieth," she answered. "About one month and six years before you," she said with a little smile.
"You don't act twenty-four, but Sheila certainly doesn't act eighteen," Kit chuckled.
"I'm twenty-one," Sheila said primly. "I have six IDs that say so."
"You act like you're twelve," Kit teased. "You need a few IDs that say that, too."
"I got way too much up here and have laid way too many guys to be twelve," Sheila said with a naughty smile, pointing at her breasts and thrusting them in Kit's general direction.
"Well, if we're going by those standards, you're, what, ninety?"
"Bite my ass, cousin!" Sheila snapped, which made Allison and Jessie erupt into laughter.
They got back to the plane after a few walks up and down the beach, right around sunset. Kit was a little tired from all the walking they did, but it had been a good day. It was nice to walk on the sand, paw in paw with Jessie, while Sheila acted like a little kid and lured Allison into shedding much of her reserved demeanor and having a little fun. It was nice to spend time with his wife, it was nice to spend time with his cousin, and it was nice to see Allison warming up to him and Jessie, on her way to being a friend. There was still a way to go, but there was hope.
They climbed back in the plane at 7:00, and were airborne and on the way home by 7:20. Sheila was up front for the ride home, and both she and Allison had their cameras out, taking pictures as they took off. Kit got them up and to a nice cruising altitude of 12,000 feet. "I wonder how hard it is to get a pilot's license," Allison mused, which made Kit laugh.
"You have no idea how many furs have said that who've ridden in this plane," he teased. "Just keep one thing in mind, Ally."
"What?"
"This plane costs about seven hundred thousand dollars."
"That much? Wow," she breathed.
"I certainly wouldn't have it if I wasn't a Vulpan," Kit admitted. "My family gave it to me as a thank you gift for me not stripping them of every penny and throwing them all out into the street."
Sheila laughed. "Yeah, they did," she admitted. "And I had to pony up twenty thousand out of my trust for it. They rated it to how much we got from the deal, as to how much we had to give. So, next time you bitch about me asking for rides, remember that, cousin. I helped buy this plane for you!"
"I'll give you the stuffing out of the back seat. That's worth about twenty thousand," Kit mused, which made the three femmes laugh.
"I never heard that before," Allison said. "What happened that made them buy you the plane in return for it?"
Telling Allison that story helped pass the time for the hour or so flight back to Austin. "Wow," she mused in her quiet manner. "You had it all, but you gave it up. I can see, Kit, you're truly a male of your word. You really did have the chance to be rich."
"I could have been a billionaire," he said immediately and without batting an eye as he started descending towards Bergstrom. "That's what the Vulpans are worth, Ally. About six point six billion, if you add up everything. Stocks, property, the worth of the businesses, everything. Most of that worth is tied up with the shipyard and steel company, though. When my father died, he had about seven hundred million in cash in banks and securities, and he controlled the business."
"Which is the biggest piece of the pie," Sheila added. "Our family owns the biggest private company on Earth."
"Not quite," Kit corrected her. "The shipyard and steel companies and the parent company over them all have stock, but the stock isn't sold to the public. It's all internal within the family and the board, to keep the company privately controlled, even though it's technically listed as a public company. Vil owns two thirds of all the stock of all three companies, Vulpan Shipyards, Vulpan Steel, and the Vulpan Corporation, which is the parent company of the other two and the catch-all for all the little tertiary companies the Vulpans control. Since Vil has that super-majority of all three companies, that's where all her money comes from, and it gives her total control of all of it. Vil earns no salary for being the CEO. She relies utterly on the profitability of the companies to earn her salary. Her pay is her dividends from the stock… but, since it's Vil, I think she netted like twelve million last year after taxes. Vil's an absolute genius when it comes to business."
"That's where the family got all its money," Sheila continued. "All of us own shares of the family business, and we earn money from it. I own five hundred shares of each company," she said proudly. "I think Kit's the only family member who doesn't own family stock."
"Actually, I do," Kit told her. "One thousand shares of each. Vil sold them to me, she leveraged a proportioned buyout of the board. The stocks are all zero sum, Allison," he explained when she looked at him with a blank stare from the back seat. "There are only sixty thousand shares of each company's stock, that was all that was ever issued. To buy stock in the business, I had to get them from someone else in the business. Vulpan stocks are never available for sale. They're not even listed on stock exchanges. What Vil did was force the members of the board to all give up one hundred shares, buying them back from them, then she sold them to me. The Vulpan stocks are the backbone of my stock portfolio," he said calmly. "That is no-risk dividends for life, since the shipyards have Navy contracts coming out of their ears for the next sixty years."
"So, you own a little less than two percent of your family business," Allison reasoned.
"Yup, and Sheila owns a little less than one percent," Kit nodded. "Vil owns two thirds of each one, which means she owns forty thousand shares of each company. It's the way they've done it ever since my grandfather incorporated the businesses back in nineteen thirty-six. When a board member is fired, quits, or retires, he has to surrender his stock to his replacement, it's an ironclad part of their contracts. The only ones who can't lose their stock are family members."
"So, over the years, the family earns money from the stocks," Allison reasoned.
Kit nodded. "Like I said, my father had like seven hundred million dollars in cold cash in the banks when he died, which was split up among the family as part of the deal that gave Vil control of the company."
"I'm one of the army of cousins, and I got a sixteen million dollar trust out of it, which is just chump change compared to what my mother got," Sheila told her. "My mom got ninety million out of the will, as well as some property and some other stuff. And that was on top of the money they already had. Mom and Dad were worth about a hundred thirty million in total assets before Kit's dad died, then they get ninety million in cash dropped on top of that."
"I don't get it. How could Kit have stripped your family and left them broke if they already have money of their own?"
"Because of the stocks," Sheila explained. "Up until the death of Kit's dad, see, the way it worked was that the oldest controlled all the stocks, as well as all money earned by the stocks within the family and any profits or interest made off money that was earned off the stocks. Yeah, my mom has a hundred twenty million of her own money from stock dividends, but since Luke's will was voided, it put control of that money all back in Kit's hands, even the money earned from stocks already given out. It was how Uncle Luke kept a stranglehold on the family, and his father before him. Not even our own money was really our own. Uncle Luke could have taken it all from us at any time."
"That sounds illegal."
"It dates back to a contract that all the Vulpans who were there in nineteen thirty-six signed, when the stock was first created," Kit explained. "It gives the heir absolute control of all money earned and stock created from the family businesses. In return for that control, the family gets shares of the family stock. It was made that way because originally, my great-grandfather was only going to give the oldest son anything, he was going to leave the other three Vulpan siblings with nothing but million dollar trusts, which was far too small to suit them, far beyond their usual standard of living. Imagine, the thirties, and a million dollars wasn't enough to live on," he snorted. "Anyway, my great-grandfather still had that British concept of passing everything to the eldest son. That original agreement was still in force, right up until my father died, because of how the agreement was worded. It gave the descendents of the heir the same power over the descendents of the other family members, giving my father the power to strip all money and stock earned from the businesses away from anyone in the family at any time… which was just about everything. Everyone relied on the shipyard, and any other businesses they started were started using money earned from the shipyard, which folded them into the agreement too. The only way to get around the agreement would be for someone to leave the family, get a job, earn money, and use that money to start a business. And me and Vil are the only Vulpans who has ever done that," he chuckled. "Vil has a little boutique in Boston that is all hers, outside of the family's control, built with a two thousand dollar loan from a bank as part of her Master's in business degree project requirement. But that chain was broken with my bastard father's death. The money and stocks were all split up among the family, and the deal that would have given Vil absolute control was dissolved, outside of her ability as the majority shareholder to leverage a forced sale of stocks held by someone else. She can't take the stocks, but she could force the family to sell their stocks to her at a set price based on the last quarter's dividend. But the money is all theirs, free and clear. That's why the family was so happy about it. They're finally free of the threat of the family head disowning them and casting them out without a penny to their names. Vil can't take that money from the aunts and uncles, and the parents can't take the money from the cousins."
"How many cousins do you have?"
"Like thirty," Sheila answered. "It's hard to keep track anymore, the older cousins are having kids now."
"And each one got that much money?"
"It was based on how much stock we have," Sheila said. "The ones with stock got less, because we'll earn money off the stocks. I got sixteen, but I think one of the one-year olds got like thirty, because they stopped giving stock to cousins about ten years ago. Said the stocks were being spread out too thin by handing them out to every cousin. I think cousin Debbie was the last one to get stocks. All together, all us cousins got around two hundred million dollars from when Kit's dad died."
"And your parents got a hundred million each?"
"Only my mom. Each of the aunts and uncles, you know, Uncle Luke's brothers and sisters, each one got ninety million," Sheila told her. "But the property was distributed without being fair about it. Uncle Zach's the eldest now, so he demanded the lion's share of the property and assets, and the others knuckled under to him. So, Uncle Zach's the richest of all the Vulpans now. The only ones that didn't really get much out of the will were Kit and Vil, which kinda sucks, since all the money was theirs to start with," she said. "But Kit was disowned, and Vil gave most of it up in order to keep control of the shipyard, since she was given the stocks before Uncle Luke died. Uncle Luke named her the heir, and with the title of heir come the stocks and the CEO's chair. Vil got the company stock, her house in Chelmsford, her dad's collection of cars, and five million dollars in cash. That's it. Compare that to Uncle Zach, who got ninety million, houses and properties all over the world, a private jet, a yacht, securities, stocks, and a bunch of other shit."
"I knew you were from a rich family, Kit, but to hear the numbers thrown around like that," she said, sounding a little surprised as Bergstrom came into view in the distance, its lights on. "And you could have had it all," she breathed.
"I won't touch that money," Kit said with utter sincerity. "It's a curse I'll never bring down on myself."
"But you did touch that money when you bought the stocks," Allison reasoned.
Kit glanced over his shoulder at her. Allison was very smart. "I didn't buy into my family fortune, Ally, I bought confidence in Vil's ability to run the business," he told her. "So, I'm showing my faith in my sister to earn enough money for our kids to be able to go to Harvard," he chuckled. "But, I have more than just Vulpan stock in my portfolio. The Vulpan stocks are the backbone, but I also invested in industrials and energy, but stayed way away from real estate and financials for now. Both of those are bubbles either collapsing or on the verge of collapse, and I'd rather do more than throw my money down a hole. No matter how much faith I have in Vil, I won't put all my eggs in her basket. It's not sound financial planning. One untold disaster, and it's all gone."
"Truly," Allison nodded. "I keep my money spread out so I'm not exposed to too much risk in any one area."
"I just have a trust," Sheila laughed. "They send me a check every week, and I won't get to touch the principle 'til I'm twenty-five."
"You should pay more attention to it," Allison told her. "If you don't know how to manage that money, you'll find out how fast it can disappear."
"That's what the trust is about," she said as Kit radioed in and prepared to land. "I actually do a good job with my money, Ally. I have money in the bank. I think I have about fifteen thousand in there last I checked. My brothers and sisters burn through their trust checks like it's endless, and they go days, even weeks, broke. They have millions in the bank, and they're going to Mom for money cause they wasted it all. I budget my money. I found out a long time ago that if I watch how I spend my money, I have plenty to do whatever I want. I just don't do anything stupid with it, that's all."
"Well, that's a start," Allison nodded.
"Sheila may not look it, but she's probably one of the shrewdest of the cousins," Kit said as the plane lined up with the runway, then radioed the tower again to begin his landing approach. "And all this time we thought she was a flake," he winked at her. "Just another member of the Party Pack."
"Thanks a lot, cousin," Sheila said caustically. "And I am a member of the Party Pack. The Austin Party Pack!" She grinned. "And in seven days, you will be inducted as its newest member!"
"Oh, no," Kit said mildly. "Now excuse me while I focus my attention on not plowing us into the runway."
After they were safely down and in the hangar, they drove back to the apartments. Allison's Lexus was parked in the visitor's lot, but she didn't go straight home. She got to meet the founding members of the poker crew before heading home, since they were all sitting on Lupe's porch. Kit took her over and introduced her to Lupe, Dan, and Mickey, and all three of them gave her a curious look. "Have we met somewhere before?" Mickey asked her.
"Maybe you've seen me when I've come over to see Sheila, or to have dinner with Kit and Jessie," she said mildly as she shook his paw.
"Ah, maybe that's it!" he said. "It's nice to meet ya. Wanna come play poker with us next week? We're always looking for suckers to separate from their pocket change," he grinned.
"Brah, don't scare off the easy targets," Lupe said with a laugh.
"Kit invited me to his party next week, so I'll be here," Allison said with a slight smile. "And I'd be happy to try my paw in poker against you."
"Uh oh, she might be a card shark," Dan laughed, "just like innocent-looking little Sammy!"
"She's certainly somethin'," Lupe said with a grin, looking her up and down openly.
"Yes, I'm going home," Allison said with a slight smile. "Let me go say goodbye to Jessie and Sheila, Kit. And thanks for taking us, I had a wonderful time," she said, leaning over and kissing him on the cheek, then sauntering away in a manner that all three of the males noticed most keenly.
"Brahhhh," Lupe sighed. "Sheila won't let her anywhere near me," he complained.
"Sheila knows you too well," Kit told him with a chuckle. "You'd make a move on a mannequin if they put it in a bikini, Lupe," Kit accused, which made Dan and Mickey laugh.
"Brah, what was she wearing at the beach?" Lupe asked intently. "I hope she was wearin' some seriously skimpy bikini. Like, fishing line and drink umbrellas skimpy."
"It was moderately skimpy, yes," Kit said in a mellow tone.
"Brah, why you gotta be so mean," Lupe said, his tail shivering.
"Because you're sitting there drooling over one of my cousin's best friends," he answered evenly. "And if you annoy her, Sheila will probably get mad at you. You really wanna play with her? And if Alice finds out you're trying to two-time her and takes it out on me, then I'll get pissed. You want both of us riding your tail, Lupe?"
"Well, I hope you got pictures," Lupe grinned. "I want to see as much of that fine femme as possible."
"Dude, you're so hopeless," Mickey laughed.
Allison was already on her way home when Kit got back to the apartment, passing Sheila in the courtyard as she walked back to her apartment across the complex, and got to work making some tea as Jessie got the shower going, to wash the rest of the sea salt out of her fur. She hugged him from behind as he put the kettle on, and he patted her on the arm fondly. "Did you enjoy yourself, pretty kitty?"
"I had a lot of fun, thank you, my handsome fox," she replied, kissing his neck. "Thank you so much."
"Any time, my love. Did you get all your homework done?"
She laughed. "It's been done since Tuesday," she said, poking him in the side lightly. "You big worrier!"
"I gotta keep your grades up, or your parents will kill me," he chuckled, turning around and putting his arms around her waist. Her paws immediately sought out the scars on his back, and traced them lightly under his shirt. "So, are we still a little jealous?"
She giggled. "I guess I always will be, but I feel a little more confident that you won't stray on me," she winked. "I just hope I can keep you faithful when I'm fat."
He laughed. "That's when I'll be most faithful to you, my pretty kitty, because it means our baby will be closer and closer to coming into the world," he said, putting his palm on her flat belly. "I can't wait."
"Me either," she said, putting her paw over his on her stomach. "I'm just glad I had no nausea at all today," she giggled. "I guess the baby showed mercy on me on our beach trip."
"I think that means the baby liked the beach too," Kit grinned, which made her laugh. "Six months and two weeks to go, Misses Vulpan," he cooed, embracing her.
"Seven days until your birthday, Mister Vulpan," she giggled in his ear.
"After spending all day staring at you in a bikini, I hope you'll give me an early birthday present," he said, sliding his finger up her back in a sensual manner.
Her tail shivered. "I think we could work something out," she whispered in his ear, then she pulled back. "After we both take a shower," she said, waving her paw in the air between their muzzles. "You smell like the beach!"
"I kinda like it," Kit smiled.
"I won't like tasting salt every time I kiss you," she answered. "Now put the kettle aside and let's get this salt out of our fur."
"Together?" he asked with a growing smile.
"You're better than a backbrush," she winked, turning off the stove and taking his paw, then pulled him back towards the bathroom.
The kettle sat on the stove for the rest of the night, forgotten.
By Monday, they knew how the twenty percent increase in circulation went.
It was a complete success.
The features in this week's issue weren't earth-shattering like they'd been in the last two weeks, but they still cleaned out all the free copies, and had sold 85% of all sale units by Monday. A 15% leftover rate was higher than Rick's estimation, so that was even more profit for the magazine. The success of the last two weeks had sustained over the third, and furs were still buying the magazine. Sensational stories had sparked interest, but they had come back again this week to read the magazine again.
After they got that information, Rick called in Kit to the office, then he, Rick, Savid, and Mike sat down in his office and had a long talk. The four of them were the core of the magazine, for Savid and Mike were the first employees whose input Rick trusted, and Kit was now a part owner. They talked about Kit's bold gamble to increase circulation for nearly two hours.
In the end, though, conservatism won out the day, but Kit also felt a little vindicated. They agreed to increase circulation another 10% and barter to offer it within Austin, mainly in youth concentrated areas in north and south Austin, away from the campus. Rick would arrange the rack space with bookstores and shops, and they would test the Austin market to buy what one could get for free on campus with 500 units.
"It's gonna mean another red week," Rick frowned, looking at his monitor. "I'm not increasing our advertising fees until the increase in circulation is permanent and sustainable, or we'll lose our clients. So, everyone tighten up your belts, cause it's gonna be crunch time."
"It's good risk," Savid said. "If Austin sales work out, we offer sale issues in city. That's good."
"Yah, I'd have to agree," Mike nodded. "We've always avoided Austin because it seemed useless to put sale units out where furs could pick it up for free. But we have a lot more interest now, and I think this is the time to see if selling the magazine in Austin will work."
"Well, one thing we could do is put out two separate issues," Kit said impulsively. "We add four pages to the sale units with extra features, like archived strips or best of articles or something. Give the students an incentive to buy the retail version."
"I'm not sure I like that idea," Rick grunted. "I don't like the idea of teasing the students like that. They're our backbone. If we piss them off and they think we're holding back our best stuff to make them pay for something we've always put out for free, our campus circulation might bomb."
"I was thinking of making different versions, though," Mike said, looking at them. "We sell in College Station and San Antonio, but our articles are focused on Austin."
"Mainly cause of U.T. alums living outside the city," Rick told him.
"Well, why don't we put out different versions for the expatriates? We could send someone down to do a story or two about San An and put those in the San An units, or buy articles from other sources."
"Well, that might work," Rick said. "But it'd be a lot of work, and reprinting can get expensive and a bit boring if they read those articles in the original material."
"Well, we'll have two new interns next month," Mike said, smiling. "We have them help with it. Every week, they have to come up with one idea for a story about San An or College Station and research enough to present the idea to the office, then they help with the whole process, from Kit's research to Rick's editing. It'll be good practice for them, and it also frees us up from having to do so much work trying to find stories. We'll have Kit to do the research, one of the writers to write and proof the article, and you two to edit their work. Each of us puts in a little time, but they handle the lion's share of the work on it."
"That has potential," Savid nodded. "But why restrict it? Let's add it to all issues, not focus them. We make the magazine more, what is word, far reaching."
"You mean start extending our focus out from Austin? That changes the core mission of the magazine, Savid," Rick noted. "We're about bringing news, information, and entertainment to the students, and all our advertisers are focused on that too. If we start reaching out, we'll charge advertisers more, and what if they're not getting returns for their money? They start pulling out. We can't forget that."
"Well, those would be sale units, so the price of the unit would help offset the advertiser problem," Kit mused. "We could charge them the same, or even less, and make it up with sale profits."
"But if the students still like it, why not try?" Savid asked. "We should ask them. Send Kit to do survey, see if students would like stories about Texas outside Austin in campus issue, see if they want more broad approach or if they want us to stay focused on Austin. If they like it, we add it. If they don't, we do Mike's idea and restrict external work to external sale issues. Either way, we increase circulation because we appeal to more and more furs."
"That's a good idea," Mike said. "After all, we are about the students. We've asked them what they want before, let's do it again. We'll ask them what they want, and we'll give it to them."
"I agree. Kit, you have a job to do tomorrow," Rick chuckled.
"Another afternoon in the student center. Yay," Kit chuckled. "I should take Sheila and make her attract attention again."
The other three chuckled. "Take her. If there's one thing she can do, it's draw every eye in the room when she wants to."
"I'll put a poll up and add a forum question to the website, get feedback over the net," Mike added. "Me and Marty can also bring it up during out first twitter session tomorrow afternoon."
"Alright, let's do that," Rick said. "I'll call Vil and get her input before lunch. After lunch we start interviewing photographers."
"When are the interviews?" Kit asked.
"Three today," Savid told Kit. "Four tomorrow. None Wednesday because of debate."
"We're gonna have a meeting tomorrow morning about the debate," Rick said. "I want to get articles on it out in this week's issue, so it's gonna be some long hours for everyone. I'm gonna warn everyone that Wednesday will be an all-nighter. We'll all be here and work our tails off to get the debate articles worked into the issue by Thursday."
"We're young, we can handle it," Mike chuckled. "And Kit's already done like every possible angle of research, so we'll be ready."
"So we take Friday off?" Savid asked.
Rick nodded. "If anyone wants Friday off, they can take it, except Lilly. She'll still have to do her canvassing that night for The Scene. But, if they want to come in, they're welcome to do so," he smiled.
"You keep saying it, it keeps not happening," Mike grinned.
"Just remember to keep Sunday open," Rick said. "It's Kit's birthday, and we're having a cookout over at his apartment complex to celebrate."
The survey was easy enough to do for Kit and Sheila the next morning, after the meeting. Kit had done student surveys often enough to have a routine, and enough students knew about the magazine to stop and talk to him and Sheila. Kit wore his usual tee and jeans, but Sheila was already in "summer" dress mode, and was wearing a half-shirt tank, a glorified bra, and a pair of cut-offs that showed off a great deal of Sheila's legs. They arrived bright and early at 10:00 in the student center's main room, pulled out the banner, and the two Vulpans did a lot of surveys… and even took a few pictures. For some reason, students wanted pictures of and with Kit and Sheila, and they obliged. Quite a few students got pictures sitting between the Vulpan cousins at the table, and more than one male got his picture with Sheila on his lap, kissing his cheek.
Sheila would never be anything but naughty, no matter how old she got.
They amassed about four hundred surveys in the six hours they were there, and the general feeling of the students was that they'd rather like to see articles about the general region in addition to articles about and for Austin. One student summed up the feeling rather well. "Well, Texas is more than Austin, and since I'm from New Braunfels, I'd kinda like to see some stories about other parts of Texas."
That was what most students wanted. They wanted to learn a little about the Texas beyond Austin, but still have the magazine focus on their stomping ground.
Savid was a little victorious when Kit brought back the results that afternoon, as he and Sheila reported on their findings. "Most of them liked the idea, as long as we don't go overboard," Sheila summed it up for them. "They liked the idea of us doing an article here and there, but not for us to suddenly go statewide. So, there ya go."
"Is just as I say," Savid grinned.
"Don't get cocky," Mike laughed.
"Well, I'd say that our readers have spoken," Rick said. "I'll get together with Barry and we'll hammer out something we can show the school of journalism, so they know what kind of assignments we're giving the interns."
Kit had never attended a debate before, but to do it as a member of the press was very interesting.
Rick had decided not to attend because he was in a wheelchair, so it was Kit, Barry, Lilly, Marty, Mike, and Denise roaming through the auditorium on campus in the press section, where a multitude of desks were set out with little stands that said to whom they were assigned. It was what the organizers called the war room, where all the reporters would do their work, while the on-air journalists used the room as a relay between their studios and themselves. They were all wearing "nice" clothes for this excursion, suits for the males, a pantsuit for Lilly, and a long pleated skirt and white blouse for Denise.
"Wow! That's Candy Crowley! And that's Keith Olberman!" Denise gushed as they moved through the large room, on the way to the auditorium. "Look, that's Bill Richardson!" she said, pointing.
"Down, girl," Marty teased.
"Let's at least try to act professional," Barry chuckled. "It looks silly for press members to be going around asking for autographs. They might doubt our neutrality."
"Oh, hush, you mean males," Denise giggled.
They didn't rank high enough to have a seat in the vaunted war room, but at least their press passes let them get into it. They'd arrived about an hour before the debate to get a feel for the place, and also so Kit and Barry could interview the other journalists. They wouldn't do anything that took more than a minute, they just wanted some background information to get a feel for the debate. Armed with digital voice recorders, the two of them fanned out while the others milled around and talked to nearly anyone who would give them a minute. A few of the reporters seemed a little surprised that these young furs wanted to talk to them, but it actually got them quite a bit of good information. Kit even got to talk to a couple of real names, for he'd managed to get a couple of words in with Wolf Blitzer and Neil Cavuto. They were nice enough, and Wolf Blitzer actually knew who he was, which surprised Kit a little bit.
The news part of it for Kit and Barry was a brief and entirely chance meeting between Kit and Senator Hillary Clinton in a back hallway. Kit and Barry had been on their way to their seats in the auditorium as the Senator was coming out from the candidate's preparation area to do a quick interview with someone and they happened to cross paths in the hallway, and were surprisingly alone, just Kit, Barry, the Senator, and a Secret Service agent. The Senator gave him a double-take as they approached, then reached out a paw to stop him in the hallway. The thin, middle-aged raccoon femme was taller than Kit expected in person. "You sure tore my campaign apart in that editorial," she said with a surprisingly gamey smile.
"They got what was coming to them, Senator," he answered simply. "It wasn't personally against you, though."
"I know. I just hope you'll be fair to me when you write about the debate."
"I guess I could," he said, scratching his chin. "That'll depend, though."
She gave him a surprised look, then laughed. "Depend on what?"
"Answer three questions," he said.
She laughed a sincere and heartfelt laugh. "Deal. Shoot."
And that was how Lone Star managed to get a brief interview with a Democratic candidate. Kit asked three questions, about the instability in the housing market, about the war in Iraq, and how independent she would be from her husband if she won the election. She seemed surprised about the first and last questions, and answered impulsively and honestly. "I think the housing market will bounce back after a while, it's just going through a natural correction," she answered about that. "I'm more worried about how this increase in foreclosures might affect the markets, though." As to the third question, she looked him right in the eye and said "when I was first lady, I did what he asked of me, gave him my opinion, but also knew that he was the one in charge. When he's the first husband, I expect him to act the same way I did."
"That's my three questions. Thank you, Senator, I appreciate it."
"Well, I guess I owed it to you after what happened," she smiled, touching his forearm fondly.
"Dude, that was so score!" Barry said with a huge grin as they went into the auditorium. "What luck!"
"Yeah, but I'm just glad nobody saw it, or my picture would be everywhere in the morning," Kit said. "I'm glad nobody's really noticed me, for that matter."
"I've seen a couple of cameras point your way," Barry told him. "I'm not sure if they took any pictures of you, though."
They all took very detailed notes during the debate, listening to the nine candidates, then rushed back to the office with a lot of coffee, donuts, and pizza set up by Rick, who was waiting for them. Then, they got to work. They had the rest of the issue ready, with holes left in it for tonight's debate. They all took off their nice clothes, went back to jeans and tees, and worked. There would be four articles about the debate, written by Kit, Barry, Lilly, and Marty, with Mike and Denise writing an editorial on their impression as opposing views; Mike was a moderate Republican, Denise a centrist Democrat. They actually weren't far off from their ideology, but they had some differing viewpoints, and those viewpoints would be the basis of the two sides editorial. They weren't alone in the office, either, for Martha showed up a little past midnight bringing dinner for them, and Jessie brought them all fresh coffee and tea for Kit around four, then stayed until it was time for her to go to school.
They all worked right into Thursday. Kit finished his article first, a four page piece about the issues, then helped Marty with his writing and his viewpoint as a gay male and how the debate impacted his platform. Marty was still getting into the swing of being a "real" staff writer, but he did a pretty good job. Barry got his piece done, then he helped Lilly finish hers about the femme's perspective. Rick and Savid sent them back a couple of times with edits, then they all took a break for lunch when Martha brought them all tuna casserole and a refill of their rapidly dwindling coffee can. The only ones not writing or editing were Sheila and Jeffrey, and those two found themselves in unusual positions. Sheila ended up manning the phones that day, while Jeffrey found himself doing a little research and some phone bargaining, getting pictures of the candidates to use in the issue from their campaigns.
By 4:00pm, they were all done. They had their wrap meeting, and Rick showed them how he'd jigsawed all their work together into the issue. It ran 47 pages this week since they'd done all their usual features and had done other articles on top of the debate articles. Rick had spent his time sitting in his wheelchair all week securing rack space in their test areas around Austin, so they'd be printing more copies of the issue tomorrow than ever before. The magazine would print at a loss that week, dependent on how many copies they sold; if the Austin test sites really tanked, the magazine would take a bath. Rick was being more conservative than Kit would have been, but it was still a real gamble to do what he was doing. But, expanding with an issue like the debate issue was a wise move.
At the end of the wrap meeting, Rick made a couple of announcements. "Damn fine work, gang," he told them. "But tomorrow, the gang grows. I've decided on a photographer."
"Which one?" Sheila asked.
"The femme sable, Janet Zychowski. She was very impressive in the interview, she has some solid experience with computers since she was a double major with computer science, she was more amenable to the idea of doing work other than photography, and she seemed capable of dealing with our rather unique chemistry."
"That and she's cute," Mike grinned.
"Well, with us losing Sheila next month, replacing the hot femme in the office was a priority," Rick said, which caused Lilly to get up, go over to him, and smack him on the arm. That made everyone erupt into laughter. "I like versatile furs working in the office, and she was definitely the most versatile of the seven I interviewed. I'll offer her the job tomorrow morning."
"You're not losing me, Rick, but if I stay on after April, I demand to be paid," Sheila countered.
"Like I said, we'll be losing Sheila next month," Rick grinned at her.
"You old bastard," Sheila grinned back.
"If I wasn't a bastard, I'd fail the boss test," Rick told her. "Everyone has Friday off except Lilly cause she has to do her club canvas, but if you want to come in, I'll be here. The writers will be coming in on Saturday as usual, but I'll have Janet come in on Saturday as well to start getting her settled in. If she takes the job, that is. Mike, pick an office for her and set her up."
"She should get the one between the printer room and Marty," he said. "We'll move the break room to the other side of Marty. She'll need close access to the big toys on that side."
"Take care of it. Do we have the computer equipment she'll need?"
"We have one workstation left from what Vil sent us," he answered. "Thank God she had the foresight to send us a couple of extras to use as backups. I will need to buy a couple of boxes, though, Rick. We're out of backups, and I don't like not having backups in case someone's box takes a nosedive on me."
"I'm not sure we can afford to go out and get Sabletechs."
"We won't have to, I'll custom build a couple of good ones. But I'll need to buy the components."
"Talk to me about it after the meeting and we'll take care of it," Rick nodded. "Now, as everyone knows, Sunday is Kit's birthday," Rick grinned, which got him some applause. "And there's going to be a party at his apartment. It'll be a cookout. Kit's friend Lupe is setting it up, and he asked me to ask each of you coming to bring something to eat, that way we have plenty. And he asked that you guys please not all bring the same thing. He has the beer, hot dogs, burgers, and paper plates all set up, and Jessie's baking the cake, so we need other dishes and some non-alcoholic drinks for those of you who have to drive home. And I don't want to see ten bowls of potato salad out on the table," Rick told them. "Before we call it today, let's make a list," he said, pulling out a piece of paper and a pen. "Who's bringing what?"
"Sounds good, boss," Denise nodded. "I'll bring some homemade salsa and some spicy corn."
"Salsa and spicy corn. Bring some chips too," Rick said, writing it down.
"I'm no cook, but I can grab something from a deli on the way down," Mike said. "How about some macaroni and cheese?"
"Sounds good, you're in for mac and cheese, Mike," Rick nodded.
"I'll bring a case of Coke, I'm no cook either," Marty said.
"We'll need it," Rick assured him.
"I have Nawa make some hot chicken curry for those brave enough to eat real food," Savid grinned.
"I'd love to try it, Savid," Kit told him. "I love spicy food, and it'll rock to taste it from the paws of someone who knows what she's doing."
"Alright, that's Savid. Lilly?"
"I'll bring some pork barbecue," she said.
"Ooh, nice," he said, writing that down. "Jeffrey?"
"You're asking me to cook?" he laughed. "How about if I bring a couple of gallons of ice cream to go with the cake?"
"I'll put you down for three," Rick answered. "Make sure they're different flavors, but don't get exotic. Chocolate, vanilla, and something else will work. Barry?"
"I'll bring some shish kebabs. They sell these good ones premade at Sam's, we can just throw them on the grill. I'll get chicken ones for those who don't want to eat burgers or dogs."
"Bring enough for like ten," Rick warned. "There's probably gonna be more furs there than that, like twenty, but at least that way they're not fighting over them."
"Twenty?"
"Well, there's the nine of us, Martha and Nawa, the sorority femmes, Kevin, my neighbor Bill's coming with his wife Lucy, and Kit's friends there at the complex," Rick said. "That'll be about twenty. What are you bringing, Sheila?"
"Me? I bought the beer," Sheila laughed.
"That's the beer. What food are you bringing?"
She gave Rick a look. "I'm buying the hotdogs and hamburgers too, Rick," she told him.
"Oh. Okay, that's different, then," he said with a nod. "Martha's bringing a bunch of food, so that's my contribution. Kit's the guest of honor, we can't really expect him to bring anything, and Jessie's baking the cake, so it sounds like we're set. Kit, son, you get the honors of taking the list to Lupe."
"I can manage that," Kit chuckled, taking it from the dingo.
"Now, on to the last announcements," Rick said, leaning over the table a little to look at them seriously. "As most of you know, Kit's bought into the magazine as a partner," he said. "In fact, it's been his money that's been paying our salaries the last couple of weeks, since we've been running in the red due to the expansion. And while I was out, him and Savid were handling my job. That got me to thinking, mainly about what might happen if I weren't here, if something happens to me. Because of that, I'm giving Savid and Kit the title of vice presidents. The title gives you official clout to get these jokers to do as you say when I leave you in charge," he grinned.
"God forbid," Lilly grinned.
"Savid will be the vice president in charge of the production of the magazine, responsible for content and layout. Kit will be the vice president in charge of, well, everything else. But don't get too jealous, guys," Rick chuckled. "Over the next few months, if these expansions hold and we start earning the money we're projecting, I'm going to expand our staff again. I'll be hiring two new writers, another photographer, and two research assistants, and more promotions will be coming around the loop. And I'll be giving everyone a raise," he finished, which made everyone applaud loudly. "So keep kicking ass, guys. If we can keep the issues flying off the shelves the way we have been the last month, we'll get bigger, we'll get better, and we'll earn more money. But for tonight, go home, get some rest, and feel proud. We put a hell of a good issue to bed today."
"Congratulations, cousin," Sheila grinned at him when the meeting broke up, and pawshakes and hugs were distributed around the table. "Twenty two and a vice president, you're moving up in the world."
"Yeah, all it cost me was fifteen thousand dollars," Kit grinned, which made Sheila laugh.
"Just goes to show, even a hopeless bum can be important if he has enough money."
Kit laughed. "Well, I won't let it go to my head. I'll only wear my Darth Vader helmet on Fridays."
Janet Zychowski was exactly what Mike said… cute.
She wasn't beautiful the way Jessie and Allison were, but she was definitely worth a look. She had bone white fur except for a little brown band over her eyes on her forehead, extending into her blond hair, extending from temple to temple. This was an extremely odd fur coloration pattern, since the majority of sables had brown or tan fur. She kept her hair short, which let her ears pop through it, and she was very slim and surprisingly tall. She was wearing a dark blouse and a pair of black slacks, not normal fare in the office, but she was carrying four camera bags with her when she came in. She came into the seemingly deserted office and called out, then came to Kit's office when he answered her. He got up and shook her paw and introduced himself. "Rick told me to settle you in," Kit told her. "Did you finish all the paperwork yesterday?"
She nodded. "Yup. I'm all done with that. He said I'd be here half a day to get used to my office, and that, uh, Mike would be getting me up to speed on your network."
"This is usually his day off, so he'll probably be a little late," Kit chuckled. "I hope you don't mind my asking, but how did you get such unusual fur?"
She laughed. "You're not the first to ask. "My dad's a Polish marten and my mom's a Russian sable, and I guess martens and sables shouldn't mix," she grinned. "I'm the first Zychowski born in America," she added, with a bit of pride.
"Do you speak Russian?" he asked curiously.
"And Polish," she added with a nod. "My parents wanted their kids to know their heritage. Not that I think those will ever help around here," she grinned.
"Well, I never really think me having a pilot's license will ever matter working here either, but you never know," Kit shrugged. "And if we ever interview a Russian diplomat, your language skills will come in very handy. Let me show you to your office, and I hope you don't mind the sterile smell. It used to be our break room," he winked as they entered the big room."
"Oh really? Well, I'm glad I at least have one," she laughed.
"Well, we have a few open offices, but we wanted you near the printer room, where we keep all our industrial printers and scanners and such," he explained as they crossed over to her new office, which held her desk, a small couch, two chairs, a shelf, a light table behind her desk, and her own printer and scanner. "We set you up with the same equipment our graphics furs use, but if you have any special requests, Mike is the raccoon to see."
"What add-ons do you guys use with Photoshop?"
"I really don't know, I'm the researcher," Kit winked. "Mike will have your laptop and Blackberry ready when he gets here, I don't see them on the desk," Kit noted.
"You supply them?"
"I guess we do," Kit chuckled. "We have them for everyone else, but now that I think of it, I should call and find out. We have a rather special arrangement with our Blackberries, I have to see if we can extend it, or if we need to change our plan. Let me call and find out."
When Kit called Vil, he found out that Rick had already talked to her about it. "Yeah, Rick told me you've got a new hire. I agreed to add her on to the plan for the Blackberries, but I also told him I can't be adding on everyone he hires. He gets this new girl for free, as a gift because he broke his leg. If he wants to put anyone else in, he'll have to take it over himself. The Blackberries were a gift to the furs who helped you when you were hurt, not a running perk for the magazine."
"Well, that's only fair," Kit said calmly. "She got our last Sabletech workstation, but I guess we'll have to buy her her own laptop."
"Now there I can help you," Vil told him. "Tell Rick I'll buy the laptop for him by proxy, because I signed a deal with Sabletech for them to supply the shipyard with laptops. The brand has impressed me. Their workbook brand laptops are very rugged, and they're perfect for my foremen and engineers out on the platens. Tell him I can get the magazine Sabletech computers and peripherals at a discount, but the magazine does have to pay for them."
"I'm sure he'll go for it," Kit said. "Dear God, everyone in this office is in love with the laptops you gave us. Do me a favor and put in an order for a laptop that a professional photographer would find good."
"Just one?"
"Yeah, we have only one new hire," Kit chuckled.
"It'll be there Monday," she promised.
"Thanks, sis, you're a lifesaver."
"Any time, bro. And premature happy birthday," she said with a giggle.
He laughed. "Thanks."
Kit went back to see Janet settling into her office, her fingers flying over the keyboard of her computer. "Tell Mike that his security is weak," she told Kit in a calm voice. "I've managed to snoop the entire network."
"Mike doesn't put security on the inside, but try breaking in from the outside and see how far you go," Kit chuckled. "Mike's very good. Anyway, your laptop will be here on Monday, and your Blackberry is on order. I'm not sure when it'll get here."
"What kind of laptop?"
"We use Sabletech here," he answered her, which made her eyes widen slightly.
"Sabletech? Those are expensive."
"They're worth every penny," Kit said fervently.
"I'm glad I took this job now," she laughed.
"That may change after a week," Kit told her. Barry peeked in, and Kit waved him inside. "Janet, this is Barry, he's our lead writer," he introduced.
"We met when she came in for the interview," Barry smiled, shaking her paw.
"Did Rick explain how things work around here?"
Janet nodded. "He said there would be times I'd be more than a photographer," she said. "He told me I was hired specifically because I can do more than take pictures."
"Yeah, we do what needs done around here," Barry said. "Whether it's in our job description or not. I think Lilly's done every job there is to do in this place at one time or another. Rick said you were a computer science double major, so odds are you and Mike are going to be doing a lot of work together."
"We'll see how good he is," Janet chuckled. "Rick said I'd also be doing some graphic design, I've taken a lot of classes on graphics and art. I think it's a solid background for a photographer. I'm all about the picture, and sometimes a picture isn't just what you take with a camera. A piece of art is just as much a picture as the pictures I take with my camera."
"Well, Savid and Jeffrey will be very good teachers if you want to keep learning," Kit told her.
Janet grinned. "I'll enjoy working in the same office that writes School Daze," she told them. "I started reading your magazine just to read the strips! I love Oxnard best, he rocks!"
"Well, we keep all our future strips a secret," Kit winked at her. "But, I will let you in on one thing. We're splitting Missy and Cutler off into its own strip."
"Really? That should be really interesting," she said. "Those strips have a very different feel from the others."
"They should, my wife does the writing for it," Kit chuckled. "I do the writing for the other strips."
"I never noticed!" Janet laughed. "I guess I should look and see whose names are on the strips!"
"All three of our names appear on all the strips," Kit told her. "But when Missy and Cutler splits off, it'll just be Jessie and Jeffrey on that one. I don't have anything to do with those."
"Jeffrey's gonna be stressed doing both strips and his other work," Barry noted.
"I think we might be hiring another artist soon," Kit chuckled.
Mike scurried into the office, and Janet shook his paw. "You must be Mike," she said.
"That's me," he smiled. "I see you've met the unimportant furs."
"Someone wants his check shorted next week," Kit teased.
"Yeah, I dare ya," Mike grinned. "Now give me and Miss Zychowski some room while we talk shop and get her box set up to her liking."
"We've been dismissed," Barry said to Kit absently.
"I think kicked out is a better term," Kit noted in reply.
"Shoo!" Mike told them, waving his paws at the pair imperiously.
Kit could have left early, but he hung around to help Janet settle in. He showed her how their archives worked, which she picked up very quickly, after she and Mike spent three hours in her office setting up her computer to her exacting specifications. Lilly had both come and gone in that time, coming in and updating The Scene, then leaving early for some well-deserved rest. Mike went home as well after the computer work, leaving Kit and Janet in the office after Barry left for the day as well. "So, was he good?" Kit asked as she navigated through to the archives.
"He seems to know what he's doing," she answered. "He certainly knows Photoshop."
"It used to be part of his job," Kit chuckled. "Mike and Lilly did almost all the photography before we hired you. They're both very good at it."
"Well, we'll see if I can't free them up to do their own work," Janet said with a smile.
"Oh yeah, I'm not sure if anyone told you, but I'm having a little party over at my apartment tomorrow. You're welcome to come."
"Well, sure, I can come. When and where?"
"Around one. I'll bring up mapquest and print you out some directions. It's not far from here."
She was quiet a moment. "Can I ask you a personal question?"
He chuckled. "Yes, I'm that Kit Vulpan," he said.
She laughed. "Well, I knew that. I just wanted to know what brought you here. Out of everything you could have done, why work in a little magazine?"
"Because this is my family, and this is my home," he said earnestly. "Rick's been like a father to me, and the gang here are the family I never had. I love it here so much, I took what little money I do have and bought into the magazine. I'll be here until either I die or the magazine closes."
"But what brought you here in the first place?"
"The same as you. I needed a job, I saw Rick's ad, and I applied. Fate was being kind to me that day. That whole week, actually. That's also the week I met my wife. Meeting Jessie is what sent me looking for a job, and brought me here. So, I guess you can say that my wife is the reason I'm here." He turned to go back to his office. "Just tell me when you're ready to go, so I don't accidentally lock you in here when I leave. I'm not sure there's enough food in the break room to last you until Monday. They cleaned it out when they moved the break room yesterday."
She laughed. "Actually, I'm about done. I did everything Rick asked me to do today. I'll be back Monday morning to get my portfolios and my own photo archives loaded up for the magazine, and Rick said I'll have my first assignment. I can leave my cameras here?"
"If you want, as long as you don't need them until Monday. Rick'll be here around eight Monday morning."
"I have cameras at home. I have too many cameras," she laughed. "Only thing that'll suck is taking my film home to develop, but I don't think any magazine or newspaper has darkrooms anymore."
"You use film?"
"For certain artistic shots, yes, I still use film. Film can produce effects you can't quite match without six hours with Photoshop, and I get a better result spending twenty minutes developing film. I have a special camera that is both digital and film," she told him. "It takes a digital picture but also takes the same picture on film."
"I've never heard of one of those."
"I'd be surprised if you had, because I made it," she said, standing up and picking up a camera case on her desk, and pulling out a surprisingly bulky camera that looked like an old fashioned 35mm portrait camera. "This is the film lens, and right here is the digital camera lens," she said, pointing to the dual lenses, the digital lens showing through a hole drilled into the case. "The controls for both lenses are up here on the top, but both take the picture when I press just one button. The offset between the two apertures is only half an inch, so I get virtually the same picture, but I can change modes on the cameras to get one scene with different effects between the two pictures."
"You made that? Damn, I'm impressed!" Kit said honestly. "You should patent it!"
"I did," she smiled. "Of course, since the film camera is a Minolta and the digital camera is a Fuji, I couldn't really build and market them myself," she added with a smile.
"I'm really impressed, Janet," Kit told her. "I've never known anyone that could invent things before."
"I've never known anyone who comes from one of the richest families in America before, so we're even," she winked. "Now let's get out of here."
Kit didn't really set much stock to birthdays.
Much as Christmas and other holidays, Kit hadn't had much leave to really feel like celebrating since he was about twelve. That was the last birthday he really enjoyed, his twelfth birthday, because he'd gotten to go to a Celtics game that evening and meet Larry Bird, and it was also the first time he'd met Suzy. She had been one of the masses invited to the party, a child of the Boston rich invited to the party of the Vulpan heir as a matter of courtesy because Suzy was one of Vil's friends. Those two had met in Weston Academy, the ultra-elite private school for Boston bluebloods which Kit himself had attended, and the two of them had formed a very quick friendship that had endured over the years. Vil and Suzy were best friends, and probably always would be. Kit had liked Suzy despite her being so much older than him, and that was probably where Suzy's crush on Kit had begun.
Of course, that was a very different Kit. Back then, he was called Little Luke about half the time by his aunts and uncles, and only Vil, Clancy, and the house staff called him Kit, because that was the pet name his mother had given him, a play on his first name that was both contraction and her own special way of calling him "baby." Vil had taken to using it after their mother died, for it soothed Kit during his storms of grief and also seemed to evolve Vil's regard for him as less and less his sister and more and more his mother, and it spread from her to Clancy and the house staff. Back then, he was only just beginning to stoke the fires of what would become an inferno of hatred against his father, the year when the hurt and confused young kit began to hate his father for not being there. That year, that birthday, was the second straight birthday party that his father had not attended, and in a sign of what was to come, it was the first that Kit enjoyed if only for the very fact that his father had not been there.
Since his twelfth birthday, Kit had had no reason to celebrate the occasion. Oh, there had been parties, but they weren't the same. That year, his twelfth year, was the year that Kit started to drift away from his family, to start to question everything he'd been taught, all of it started by his hurt at why his father had walked away. By his thirteenth birthday, Kit was already on the path that would lead to the confrontation on his sixteenth birthday, the day he walked out on his family, forsook them, choosing to live on the streets rather than be a Vulpan any longer. And after that momentous sixteenth birthday, he'd been too busy trying to survive in the face of his father's attempts to destroy his life to feel like doing much celebrating. Birthdays became like other holidays, just days, where the magic they had held for him in his youth had faded away over time.
But, this was his first birthday with Jessie, and in that respect, it felt like a special day for him. Jessie was going to bake him a cake and his friends were coming to a cookout in the courtyard, which would no doubt be done over the sounds of construction across the block as Lupe's army of workers raced to get everything built on time. For that reason, Kit was looking forward to today. Not because it was his birthday, but because it would be a nice little gathering, where the three separate circles of his friends, the magazine, the sorority, and his neighbors, would combine and interact with each other more than they usually did.
Jessie was sure to give him an extra-special waking up birthday present, blowing lightly in his ear at 8:00, making his swat sleepily at what felt like a fly, the she kissed him exuberantly on the side of his muzzle, leaning over his back. "Wake up, my handsome fox," she cooed in his damaged ear. "It's your birthday."
"Then let me go back to sleep," he mumbled groggily.
Her paws sliding down his back sensually made his tail stand straight out under the covers. "But then I can't give you your first birthday present," she said huskily in his ear.
She found herself wrapped up in his arms before she could even take a breath.
After what Kit felt was the best birthday present ever given in the history of the universe, she made him a nice breakfast, keeping him firmly out of the kitchen. "Oh no, this is your day, silly fox!" she laughed. "No cooking! Now go play X-Box or something and let me take care of you!"
"You already did this morning," he said with a loving growl, wrapping her up from behind, putting his paws on her belly. "Six months and one week," he said in her ear.
"I know very well how much more time I have to go," she said primly. "Now don't make me call Mom and have her get you out of my kitchen!"
"The heavy artillery, eh?" Kit laughed, then he was serious for a moment. "You know," he realized, "Vil didn't send me a card. She always sent me one when I was in Boston. I'm a little surprised."
"Oh, I seriously doubt she forgot your birthday, love," Jessie told him, patting his paws with her own. "You know her, odds are some courier in a suit's gonna knock on the door at noon and give it to you personally."
"Yeah, that's something she'd definitely do," he chuckled, nuzzling Jessie's neck. "I love you, Jessica Desdemona Vulpan," he told her, hugging her a little tighter.
"And I love you, Kitstrom Lucas Vulpan. But that's no defense to lurk in my kitchen when I have very important work to do for your first birthday since we were married," she said tartly. "Now get out of my kitchen so I can make your breakfast and bake your birthday cake!"
He laughed, and just hugged her even tighter. "But I want to spend the rest of the day just like this," he protested, "with the femme I love and our baby wrapped up in my arms, close to me. That would make the day much more special than me just getting one year older."
"Such a sweet talker when he's trying to get his own way," Jessie accused with a giggle. "But you're about to get punished, my handsome fox. I have to have your cake ready by the party!"
"Well, there are no pillows in the kitchen, and I have a pretty firm grip on you to keep you from going to get one," he noted dryly.
"Mmm-hmm," she hummed lightly, reaching to her left. She grabbed the extendable spray nozzle from by the faucet of the sink, pulled it up, then aimed it over her shoulder, right at his face. "You were saying something, love? I didn't quite make that out."
Kit laughed, then just rocked her back and forth in his arms. "Point taken, my pretty kitty," he surrendered. "But you do realize, this means war."
"We can have our epic battle of good versus evil after I bake your cake," she noted clinically.
"It's a date," he chuckled, kissing her neck, then he obediently let her go.
He went to the living room and decided to read while he listened to the news on the radio. He took the cup of tea Jessie brought out for him with a smile and a nod of thanks, and basically did as Jessie wanted, which was relax. Jessie called him to the table when she finished breakfast, a simple affair of eggs, bacon, a grapefruit half, and wheat toast. After breakfast, she got to work on the cake, which made Kit feel a little… unsettled. He was so used to helping Jessie whenever she was engaged in domestic chores that he felt, well, like he was freeloading. Here he was, sitting around reading a book and listening to the radio while Jessie was in the kitchen working, and it just wasn't like him. He would usually be in there with her, sharing in the labor both to be near his wife and also to get it done; after all, if both of them were working on it, it got done faster and gave them more time to themselves. But here he was, banished from the kitchen on pain of getting attacked with the sink sprayer, forced to sit there and do nothing while Jessie worked in the kitchen… worked for him. He knew it made her happy to do this for him, but it also annoyed him just a little bit that she wouldn't let him share in the labor. He'd be much happier in there with her than he was sitting in the living room, banished from her presence. It just felt… unnatural to be in a different room than her. Even when they were doing different things, they were almost always together. The only time they really separated was when Jessie had serious homework to do, which she preferred to do in the quiet sanctuary of the den.
When she came out to give him a new cup of tea, he pulled her down onto the couch and held her for a long moment. She always seemed to be able to sense his feelings, so she didn't struggle or think he was playing, she just let him hold her, kissing him lightly on his cheek and muzzle. "What's the matter, my handsome fox?" she asked. "I wasn't that mean to you, was I?"
"Just feeling a little unsettled," he answered. "I'm not used to being in the house with you and not with you. And I'm sitting here reading a book while you're in there doing work. That makes me feel like I'm a heel."
She laughed. "I'm in there working because I love you, silly," she told him. "I want to give you something special on your birthday, and I'd feel like a heel if I let you do any of the work. The birthday boy just simple does not help bake his own cake! It would be a scandal!" she told him, kissing him on the nose. "But it's all but done now, love, I got it in the oven. So, I have about a half an hour that's all yours," she cooed, wrapping her arms around him.
Despite being married, and knowing every inch of her body, and doing many much more intimate and sexy things with her, there was definitely something to be said about making out on the couch like a couple of teenagers. Kit made sure to keep full possession of his wife until the timer went off, spending a blissful 35 minutes in the arms of the femme he loved, running the entire range from playful pecks and smooches to deep, toe-curling kisses that nearly made them both pass out from lack of oxygen. But, reality intruded on their intimate fun… but not without a fight. Jessie laughed quite a bit as she struggled free of Kit's grasping paws, constantly complaining that the cake was going to burn, and he'd be in all kinds of trouble if that happened. But she got free of him, and rescued the cake in more than enough time to prevent a calamity. Kit wanted to watch her decorate it, but she hustled him out of the kitchen imperiously, pushing him from behind all the way through the living room and to the hallway. "In the den, you!" she commanded. "You'll see the cake when I bring it out at the party, and not a minute before!"
"But–"
"But nothing! Stay!" she barked, pushing him through the door, then closing it loudly behind him.
"This is false imprisonment!" he shouted playfully through the door.
"You get one phone call, call your lawyer!" she shouted back, which made him erupt into laughter.
He'd give her what she wanted–he always did–but that didn't meant that he had to make it easy for her.
After the cake was decorated and safely spirited out of the apartment, Jessie let Kit out of the den. She did cave and let him help prepare some of the other food Jessie was bringing to the cookout, baked beans, her famous spicy beef tip and potato chunk dish, and she was making homemade chili for the hotdogs. Kit helped her carry some of it out, and saw that the courtyard had been converted to a little party area. Lupe had erected a large sideless tent, basically a shade, under which they'd set several long tables and folding chairs. The tent, tables, and chairs were brand new. Sheila and Allison were already there, helping Lupe, Dan, and Mickey spread cheap tablecloths over the tables and weight them down at the corners with little beanbags. Sam and Kevin were also here, carrying a large platter of chopped vegetables with a big bowl of ranch dip in the middle. "Hey brah, you're early!" Lupe teased.
"It's my party, I'll show up whenever I damn well please," Kit teased in reply.
"Well, if you're gonna show up for the setup, you're gonna help," Lupe told him. "You can help Mickey bring over the grills."
"I don't mind, I'm not a drama queen like certain Chihuahuas around here," Kit grinned at him.
Kit helped them get everything ready. Tables were covered and sturdy plastic plates and silverware were stacked, food was brought out in containers in preparation for the guests, Dan and Mickey's grills were brought over, and Dan had to make a quick run down to Circle K for a new propane cylinder when he realized the one he had didn't have enough left to hold out for the whole party. Allison left as well, and brought back a couple of very large coolers and four large bags of ice. "I'll pay you back for those, babe," Lupe told her. "All this stuff is gonna go in storage and be in the new community center, that way it's available for patio parties."
"And you can write them off on your taxes," Kit chuckled.
"I ain't no fool, brah," Lupe grinned. "So I hope you saved the receipt, babe. I'll need it for my taxes."
Dan and Mickey iced down the beer and soda they'd bought, Jessie started pressing hamburger into patties, and they all just sat down and talked while waiting for the others to start arriving.
And they didn't wait long. Sam and Kevin got there about twenty minutes after they got everything set up, carrying food for the party and a small wrapped present for Kit, and Martha and Rick arrived not two minutes later, so quick that Kevin helped Martha get Rick transferred to the wheelchair and wheeled him down the sidewalk. Janet was the next to arrive, and she spent much of her time shaking paws and being introduced around, which kept everyone busy until Lilly, Jeffrey, Sandy, Savid, and Nawa all arrived at the same time. More and more kept arriving faster and faster as they approached 1:00, which was the start time for the party, but nobody got there that late. The last ones to arrive were a couple of the sorority girls, Danielle and Charlotte, who got there as Jessie and Sheila had started grilling the hamburgers, hot dogs, and other grillable foods the guests had brought. Lisa had brought some chicken breasts to grill, since she didn't eat red meat, they had Barry's shish kebabs, and Charlotte brought corn on the cob wrapped in foil, which were parked on an upper rack and left to slowly cook.
It was a nice time for Kit. He wasn't allowed to help cook or serve, so he sat at the table and talked with friends, and friends around him either met friends or renewed friendships forged at the wedding. Some of the more bashful sorority girls like the other Jessie and Lisa got to see some furs they hadn't seen since the wedding, and Janet got the opportunity to meet just about everyone in Kit's life at once.
But, it wouldn't be a party without at least one surprise. Kit was chatting with Janet, getting to know her better, when he didn't notice things get a little quiet around him, and heard Sandy giggle. A paw tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, can I sit here?"
Kit gasped and almost jumped up, since that voice belonged to no one other than Suzy. He whirled around and saw Suzy, Vil, Muffy, Hannah, John, Jenny, Ben, and to Kit's surprise, his cousin Terry all standing there with a fox male Kit didn't know. He laughed and gave Suzy a rough hug. "I never thought I'd see you guys!"
"Now you know why you didn't get any cards," Jessie told him with a giggle.
"I should have known!" he laughed as he hugged Vil. "You're such a sneak!"
"What can I say, I'm a Vulpan," she laughed in reply. "I left this morning and picked up Jessie's family in Cincinnati on the way down."
"I'm so happy you guys are here," Kit told Hannah as he gave her a fond hug.
"We were happy to come, dear. We got to ride in your sister's jet," she laughed.
"It was fun!" Jenny gushed as she hugged Kit.
"Kit, this is my boyfriend, Corey," Suzy introduced him to the slender fox male that was with them. He was a little taller than Kit and a little wiry, but he had a handsome muzzle and dark hair the same color as his mittens combed back and between his ears. "Corey, this is Kit, one of my oldest friends."
"I've heard a lot about you, Kit," Corey told him.
"I heard you make movies. How was Mexico?"
"Hot and dry," Corey laughed. "But I'm done down there for now, we're back in the studio for post production work."
"Corey, this is Jessie, my wife," he introduced.
"Well, it's a pleasure to meet the girl that made Suzy available," Corey grinned at Jessie as he shook her paw.
Jessie laughed ruefully. "Well, you'd better put a ring on her finger or you might not have her long," Jessie teased.
"We've been talking about it," Suzy told Kit in a low voice.
Kit was a little less pleasant when Terry approached. "It's good to see you again, cousin," he said with an earnest smile. "When Vil said she was coming to see you, I begged her to let me come. The rest of us aren't exactly sure if it's safe to try to call you or anything," he admitted. "The only ones that seem to be allowed are Vil and Muffy."
"Well, I guess I told them to leave it like that," Kit chuckled.
"Well, you'd have quite a few cousins calling if we knew you'd let us."
"Well, I kinda like not being embroiled in the family business," Kit told him. "The last thing I need is for someone like Victor to be calling me at three in the morning just to be an ass, or Bridgette calling me every hour to try to make me get a divorce, or God forbid, Bess calling down here whining because Liz stole her boyfriend. I kinda like them to be too afraid to call."
Terry laughed. "Tell me about it," he drawled.
Kit accepted Terry into the party with a certain wariness, but after sitting down and talking with him a while, he felt much better about it. Terry was a very earnest Vulpan, and not cut from the usual mold. He was intelligent, insightful, hard-working, and dedicated. He was also rather handsome, much more handsome than Kit, probably the most handsome among all the male Vulpans. But instead of having an arrogant snotty personality like Victor, he was instead modest and self-effacing, much like Ben. All of Uncle Tom's children were a little different from the other cousins, but not necessarily in a good way. Bess, the most wanton and notorious of any of the Vulpan kids, was Tom's oldest. Then came his cousin Dahlia, who was actually a little mentally unhinged and was kept close to the family's vest, then Terry, then their youngest, the twelve year old male Hunter, just starting at Weston next fall. Terry's mother and Tom's wife, Justine Leeks Vulpan, had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer not long after Hunter was born, and had had her ovaries removed, which made Hunter the last of the children of Tom and Justine.
Uncle Tom and his family had almost always been the "black sheep" of the family, at least until Kit took that title in spades. Tom was a little… odd. Eccentric was a good word for it, but he wasn't eccentric in a bad or dangerous way. He was just odd. He had a very unusual personality, he was a little moody and a bit erratic, but he was also absolutely brilliant. Kit had since learned that his enigmatic uncle had a bit of obsessive-compulsive disorder, which gave him those wild mood swings and periods of genius mixed in with periods of sullen depression. It wasn't blatant, but it was just enough to give him his rather unusual personality. All of his kids were also a little off the beaten path, in their own ways. Bess was an absolute slut and the most notorious of all the Vulpans, the founding femme of the Party Pack. Dahlia had battled clinical depression and mild schizophrenia most of her life, so she was rather delicate. Terry was very much unlike most of the other Vulpans, since he was so smart, and Hunter was just a bundle of unceasing energy that ran his parents ragged.
Terry, at least, was sincere when they got around to talking about his leaving the family, and he was brave enough to do it around the family, since Vil, Muffy, and Sheila were sitting with them as they talked. "I was petrified," Terry told him. "I was a senior and almost ready to graduate, and then you get disowned, and I was terrified that Uncle Luke was going to come after the whole family, so much so that I convinced Dad to pay for my whole four years of school at Yale in advance," he said. "He did it for me, too, set up a special trust I used to pay for my school, which would let me finish Yale. I wanted to try to call you a couple of times, but I'll admit that I was too afraid to do it," he sighed. "I couldn't see how I'd survive if I got disowned, how I'd ever get a good job if I was thrown out of school, since I saw what Uncle Luke did to you. We were afraid he'd do the same to us, not just disown us, but torture us. We knew he was capable of it."
"The old bastard certainly was," Kit grunted, then he realized that just about all of Jessie's family and Allison were listening with rapt attention.
"Well, I was wrong about it, and for that much, I apologize, Kit," he said, offering his paw. "If you don't mind a late apology, that is."
"Yay! Another convert for the Austin Vulpans!" Sheila called.
"Hey, I'm still a Boston Vulpan, Sheila! We'll have to go to war to get Terry back!" Muffy challenged.
"Bring it on, Eugenia!" Sheila called insultingly, then the two started mock-slapfighting across the table like a couple of six year olds, which made the whole party erupt into laughter.
"It's not too late," Kit told him, shaking his paw. "At least not for you. For some others in the family, their chance passed a long time ago. Basically anyone in the family older than me, who was old enough to understand what was going on, yet did nothing. Them, I will never forgive."
"Well, I'm glad to hear that. And just so you know, it doesn't really bother me all that much that you married a cat. I'd never do it, but that's because I just don't find femmes who aren't vixens attractive. I guess growing up in Boston flavored my idea of attractive."
Kit had heard much the same attitude from Vil, so he could nod in understanding. "I appreciate that, Terry. So, you're saying my wife isn't pretty?" he asked teasingly.
Terry laughed. "She's pretty, but she just doesn't do it for me, cousin."
"Well, I know who to call when I want a chaperone for her, then. So, what's it like being a vice president who matters?" Kit asked, which made Terry laugh.
Kit and Terry talked a while about the shipyard as the party got into full swing, hearing about Terry's surprising resistance when he took over the safety department. The older furs in the department really resented what they saw as Vil's move of cronyism, putting a Vulpan in charge of an important department, which had forced Terry to go in and clean house. He demoted a bunch of middle managers in his department, transferred some furs in from his accounting department to replace them, and reorganized the entire division to ensure that such a mistake that happened there could never happen again. He instituted tighter controls, more dual oversight so no one fur in a critical position could make a mistake that would result in a fine from the government, and ordered an audit of general shipyard safety to see if there was any way they could increase safety for the workers or streamline safety procedures. He went so far as to include a survey with paycheck to poll the workers on their confidence of the safety policies at the shipyard. From the sound of it, Terry was going to be just fine in his new job, for he took it seriously, and he had to guts to do what had to be done. While they were talking, Kit got to sample a whole lot of different foods, and he almost choked when he tried Nawa's curry; it was the spiciest food he'd ever eaten! His eyes watered as he swallowed the first mouthful, then he laughed and took another bite. Despite being so spicy, it was still quite delicious.
"At least he's brave!" Nawa laughed as he worked his way through the curry. Then, after he finished it, she put another plate in front of him. "Here, this is curry I did not make just for you," she said with a teasing smile.
"Nawa! You cheating little so and so!" Kit objected, which made the whole party laugh.
"I give you honor for eating the whole thing," she grinned at him. "Most run at the first bite." Then she pointed at Savid. "And blame him for first dish, he told me to make my spiciest curry for you!"
"Oh, I'll take care of you next week, Savid," Kit threatened, pointing an accusing finger at the mongoose.
They spent a very lovely afternoon in the courtyard, eating, talking, and laughing as Terry and Jessie's family circulated, and Suzy introduced Corey around. Outside of a slightly frosty meeting between Allison and Hannah, things went quite swimmingly. Kit rather liked getting to talk to Suzy face to face for a change. They talked about once a week on the phone on the average, usually every Saturday, maintaining a friendship that had endured for over ten years. Kit got a chance to get to know Corey, who was a very mellow young fox who loved to make movies. He'd be going back to his studio in New York on Monday to finish his movie, and then he'd be shooting another film in Maine over the winter, which would keep him close to home for Suzy. Suzy did seem to honestly love him, from their weekly talks, and getting a chance to see Suzy and Corey together showed him that Corey loved Suzy in return.
He was glad of that.
There were other little wars of conquest going on at the party. Sheila had trapped Ben over by the grills and was talking to him, and Hannah was keeping a very close eye on them. Sandy was teasing Jeffrey, playing with his ears from behind and making them flinch, while Sam and Kevin stayed close together, standing side by side as they chatted with Jenny and John. Lupe introduced Alice around when she arrived, and about all the males were watching Allison as she moved through the party, going back to her seat. Kit didn't spend all his time watching Allison though, if only to keep Jessie from beating him, so he stayed in his seat of honor and let his friends drift back and forth to him. He spent a long time talking privately with Suzy, out of Corey's earshot, getting caught up in the kinds of things she'd never tell him over the phone or in front of her boyfriend. He then took part in a pretty indepth conversation between himself, Vil, and Rick as they discussed the expansion of the magazine.
But they didn't let him spend the whole day talking. After everyone had eaten their fill, Jessie and Martha vanished, then returned with the cake. Kit had to sit there and get serenaded by a round of Happy Birthday by everyone as Jessie brought out a german chocolate cake baked in the shape of the magazine, with Lone Star written across the top in icing and all the birthday candles down where the picture would be, and the words HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIT! scrolled across the bottom. Everyone applauded when he managed to blow out all the candles in one try, and then he did the honors of cutting up the cake and doling out the pieces. Jessie had baked two cakes but had only decorated one to make sure that there was enough cake for everyone, and also explained why she was so adamant about keeping him out of the kitchen, to keep the secret that Vil and her family were coming. They enjoyed the delicious cake, and then everyone produced small gifts for him. Thankfully, nobody went crazy, not even his rich relatives, and he got a bunch of little knickknacks and useful little things for the office, though Sheila couldn't resist the opportunity to buy him a G-string to wear for Jessie and a stack of porno DVDs all taped together. He was afraid that Vil was going to spring something on him, but thankfully, her gift to him was a new acoustic guitar, to replace the rather old one that Rick had given him.
It was Rick's gift that puzzled him. He unwrapped it and found a mobile broadband card, one of those ones that worked just about anywhere by accessing cell phone networks rather than Wi-Fi. "Well thanks Rick, but I'm not sure how much use this is going to be," he said, turning over the card's box to look at the back.
"Oh, it's going to be very useful to you, son," Rick grinned.
A cold feeling built in the pit of his stomach, because Rick was looking at Vil.
"You're going to be telecommuting for about six weeks, bro," she said with a predatory smile, like the cat that caught the canary, taking a small brochure from Stav and handing it to him. "Happy birthday."
"What is this?" he asked, looking at it. It read Cessna Flight Training Academy, and upon its front was a picture of a raccoon and a badger sitting in the cockpit of an aircraft, the badger looking where the raccoon was pointing.
"May fifth, you're going to Independence, Kansas for about six weeks, bro," she smiled. "And you're going to go through Cessna's Citation training program, the one Cessna uses to train its own pilots. You said you'd always wanted to get that jet rating you'd never gotten, so I'm going to make sure it happens."
"But, but I have work! I can't leave for a month! I'm already too deep in the hole on time off as it is!"
"Work will be sent to you, son, and I seem to recall a certain young fox bargaining a cleaning of the slate as part of the deal when he invested in the magazine," Rick chuckled. "I know you don't believe this, but you can actually do most of your research work from home. Well, you're going to be doing your assignments from Kansas, and you're also going to be writing a few articles about your experience for the magazine," he added. "I think those would be really, really interesting. So don't think this is a vacation, cause it's not. You'll be working your tail off up there for the magazine when you're not in flight training."
"See, I already have everything all set up," Vil grinned.
"I'm going with you," Jessie smiled, taking hold of his paw. "My last final is the Thursday before we leave. I'll be out of school, so I'll have plenty of time. Vil said that I could take classes on flying while I'm there and she's going to make sure I can get back to Austin for my appointments with Doctor Mac," she assured him.
"I'm, I'm speechless," he said in shock.
That made quite a few of them laugh. "It's four different programs, bro, and they said a couple of different types of jet fall into some classes because all their systems are the same. You'll do each one, one after the other after the other. They said it would take you about one or two weeks to do the first section, that's for a little jet called a Mustang, because it has the same avionics you have in your plane now, that Garmin system. They said it takes about two to three weeks for the second section for, um, the CJ series, one week for the third section for an encore, then two to three weeks for the last section, which you get to pick for any jet they produce. When you walk out of there, you'll be qualified to fly, hold on," she said, taking the brochure from him and looking at the back, "the Mustang, all four models of the CJ series, and the Encore, and you'll get a chance to learn how to fly a Sovereign, XLS, Citation ten, or a Columbus."
"And I'll be there with you," Jessie said, kissing him on the cheek. "So you won't be alone."
"I'm… wow. Just wow. Vil, sis, I'm, I'm… thank you. Thank you so much!" he said, giving her a fierce hug.
"Can I give a gift, or can't I?" she laughed as she patted him on the back.
"You spoil me too much!"
"You won't let me spoil you anywhere near as much as you deserve," she answered. "So I'll just give you what you want. I know you'll never take anything you can't justify in your own mind, so I'll just be happy with helping you fulfill a lifelong dream. You'll finally get the chance to fly jets, little brother. They won't be quite the jets you wanted to fly when you were younger, but at least you'll get to fly jets."
"Thank you sis," he said, picking her up off her feet and rocking her back and forth in his arms. "I love you."
"And I love you, Kit," she told him, kissing him on the cheek. "Now put me down, it's entirely improper for the most powerful femme in America to be held in her brother's arms like a kid."
Everyone laughed and applauded as he put her back down. She looked up at him, her eyes a mystery, then she smiled. "So, you're not going to rage over my gift?"
He laughed. "It's a totally useless gesture since I don't have a jet, but you're giving me something I've wanted half my life. Why should I?" he smiled, then he hugged her again.
"That just saved you getting spanked in public," she grinned at him.
He was honestly overwhelmed. Vil was letting him finish a boyhood dream. It probably wasn't cheap at all, but on the other paw, it was something he'd always wanted, and it may even be useful some day. Some of the really small Citations could be flown with a single pilot… maybe some day, when he had money, he could rent one just to fly it. It would be worth the thousand dollars to do it… just once.
Jessie looped her arms around him and kissed him on the cheek. "I'm glad you're happy, my handsome fox," she giggled. "We've been working on it for a month, all of us."
They all gave him a huge grin, and it made Kit laugh. "Well, thanks, everyone. I'm very happy." He reached down and grabbed Vil's paw. "And I believe I owe you something," he told her.
"Oh? What is that?"
"A ride in my little single engine propeller plane," he smiled down at her.
She laughed. "I accept!" she said. "But we'll have to go now, since we have to get back to Cincinnati and Boston tonight."
"As long as nobody minds that the birthday boy's bailing on his own party," Kit laughed.
"Go ahead, handsome fox, you have a promise to keep," Jessie giggled. "And we'll just keep going without you."
"Yah, brah, we won't even know you're gone!" Lupe teased.
And so, Kit and Vil took a short ride down to the airport in her limo. Stav and Marcus waited for them in the hangar as Kit helped Vil up onto the wing, and she settled into the copilot's seat as he did the walk-around. She watched silently as he got in and did the preflight, just paying attention to his actions, and remained quiet as they taxied out towards the runway. "Kit," she said, adjusting her headset, "I have a question."
"Well, I'll do my best to answer," he said as he turned on the ramp leading to the runway, then held up his paw to Vil as he answered air traffic. "Well, hold that thought until we're up, sis," he said.
She was quiet, looking out the window as they took off, and he turned to the southeast and ascended, getting well away from the traffic patterns of the bigger planes. "Alright, now, what was your question?"
She was quiet a moment. "I want you to come to Boston next weekend. Will you do it?"
"That's going to depend," he told her honestly. "How long, and why?"
"Kendall is going to come over from London," she told him. "I want you to meet him."
"Well, why am I going to Boston? You know how I feel about Boston, Vil. Bring him here."
"Kit," she said, then she looked out the window. "When's the last time you talked to Clancy?"
"Monday," he answered. "Wait a second. Why didn't he come with you?"
"Kit, Clancy–" she said, then she blew out her breath. "Kit, Clancy is getting old."
Kit gave her a long look.
"He wanted to come with us, but he was just too tired," she told him. "And he's really worn down over the last couple of months. I want you to come to Boston to meet Kendall, but I also want you to go see Clancy. He'd really like to see you, and I really think you should."
He didn't miss the inference in her voice, before it's too late. "I'd love to see him, sis, but I will not stay in Stonebrook. Not as long as Zach is in that place. Maybe not even if he wasn't. It was his house, sis. There's nothing but bad memories there for me."
"You can stay in a hotel, bro, that's not a problem, but I'd really like you to come up. Both you and Jessie. I'll even send my jet for you."
Kit was silent a long moment. "I'll have to ask her, sis. You know what might happen if I bring my wife to Boston, within rifle range of Uncle Zach or Uncle Jake or Aunt Maxine. My pregnant wife, Vil."
"I'll keep a leash on the uncles, Kit, I promise. So you'll come?"
"I'll ask Jessie. How she answers is how I answer, sis. If she says no, you'll just have to bring Kendall and Clancy here."
"Alright, I can live with that," she said, looking at the cockpit displays. "You know, all those flights I've taken in my jets, and I've never once sat up front," she said. "It almost looks like a video game."
Kit laughed suddenly and earnestly, which made the plane lurch a little since he had his paw on the control stick. "Well, we can't let you go without playing this one," he told her. "Grab the stick, Vil. It's time for your first flying lesson."
Kit gave Vil the same basic flight lesson as Jessie and let her fly the plane for about ten minutes, even let her do a slow turn to turn them back towards Bergstrom, then let her spend the rest of the flight enjoying seeing flying from the perspective of the pilot. "I wonder what it would be like to fly a plane myself," she mused, which made Kit laugh again.
"What is it about this plane that makes everyone want a license to fly it?" he asked her with a grin.
"It is nice, bro," she said. "It's like riding in a flying Bentley."
"It probably cost about as much as a Bentley," he noted. "How much is insurance on this thing anyway?"
"Insurance? Why should I insure it?" she winked. "You own it outright, bro. If you crash it, you don't need any insurance to pay it off."
"So, it was too outrageous to be worth it," he noted.
She laughed. "Just about. You graduated from a very good flight school and have a lot of logged hours, but it was a combination of your age and your lack of logged hours for a long period that the insurance companies didn't like. They said they'd give me a better rate after you logged some hours again. And unfortunately, about the only furs a Vulpan can't bully are insurance underwriters."
"I hope the flight school lets me rate as a solo pilot," he said. "To be rated to fly a jet solo takes a little more than being rated to fly as part of a crew."
"I showed them your flight record, and they said you would," she said. "But just barely. You've had your commercial license for years and you have enough logged hours in complex planes, which was what they said was the benchmark. They said you'd earn a rating to fly solo."
"Thank God," Kit sighed. "I know I'll never use it, but if I have the solo rating, the option is always there someday when I save up enough money to rent a jet, just to fly it once."
"I can take care of that, bro," she smiled.
He laughed. "And ruin my sense of accomplishment? No. If you do everything for me, when will I ever feel like I managed to do for myself?"
"Don't sell yourself short, brother mine," she told him seriously. "I read your magazine, and in the last month, I've seen better writing out of your little campus rag than I've seen out of Time. You're doing exactly what you should be doing by trying to expand right now. If you keep your quality as high as it's been, I see Lone Star going statewide within two years. Have you seen your sale numbers for your Austin test market yet?"
He shook his head. "Rick will find out tomorrow morning. I think they'll be very good. This week's issue had the debate coverage in it."
"I think so too," she agreed. "I think Rick's being too conservative, though."
"Well, I can see it from his side, sis. If our test crashed, then the magazine would literally be out of business."
"I wouldn't let that happen, bro. This is an investment. I'd have loaned the magazine the money to recover. And note I said loan, bro, not give. My generosity has limits."
"I'm not sure I like the idea of you coming down here to bail us out," he said seriously. "If there's no fear of failure, there's no dedication to excellence."
"That's a healthy attitude," she said with a nod.
Kit put a finger to his headset as air traffic control called him. "Alright, time to watch and listen, sis, I have to land us."
Marcus and Stav were waiting for them at the hangar as he parked the plane, and one of them helped Vil down as Kit did postflight and locked up. "I really need to update my logbook," Kit laughed. "I still haven't logged the trip to the beach yet, and those logs are how the FAA knows I'm logging hours and how I know when it's time to take my plane in for inspections and maintenance."
"You can do it tomorrow," Vil said. "We have a party to get back to!"
"True."
When they got back, the party was still in full swing. Everyone was still out in the courtyard, talking, laughing, listening to music, and mingling… or mingling too much. Sheila was trying to pry Ben away from Hannah, who was watching him like a hawk as he chatted with Muffy, but the real shock was Terry and Allison sitting by themselves over at the furthest table, talking while sitting opposite each other, and with Terry holding Allison's paws. Terry looked smitten, and Allison was smiling with surprising warmth and earnestness. Kit… wasn't sure about that. Allison could be honestly interested in his cousin, or she could be fishing for him, using years of practice to lure him into a relationship.
Kit worried about it for a while, until Terry came over to him, his expression a little surprised and bewildered. "Kit, can I talk to you a second?" he asked.
"Sure, pull up a bench," he said, waving to the empty seat beside him.
"I was talking to Allison."
"I noticed."
"I tried to get her to give me her number, and she wouldn't give it to me."
Kit's respect for Allison went up a few notches, as well as his trust in her. She wasn't fishing for Terry after all. She just liked him.
"What did I do wrong?" he asked earnestly. "She was such a wonderful femme to talk to. She's smart, she's funny, she's interesting. We were having a great talk, and then she just seemed to shut down and walk away."
"Did you take her paws, or did she offer them to you?"
"I, I don't know. Maybe both? She didn't seem to mind. She was squeezing my paws while we were talking. It was really nice to hold them. Her paws were soft."
Kit wasn't sure exactly how to approach it, but he did see that Allison hadn't told Terry, and that meant that he had to protect her secret. It was not his secret to give. "She has her reasons, Terry. Besides, why did you ask for her number? You'll probably never be back here."
"I'll come back if I can get her number," he said earnestly.
"That's not really your decision, Terry. If I were you, I'd leave it alone."
"What? Why?"
"Because you seem to forget, she can get in touch with you. Sheila is her best friend, and I'm here too. You think she can't get your number if she wants it?"
He was silent a moment, then he chuckled.
"You want my advice? Here it is. Just leave her be. If she's interested, she'll call you. If she's not, she won't."
"That's it?"
"That's it. Allison is not your average femme, Terry. I think you noticed that."
"God, did I," he said fervently.
"Well, take it from me. Someday, when you're older, you'll understand."
"Older? You're only six months older than me!"
"Yes, and I've spent those six months here in Austin, where you live in Boston. You don't know Allison, cousin. I do. Just trust me."
"I–well, I guess I will. I'll leave you my personal cell number, Kit, both for you and for her. But tell her that I really want her to call me. I don't think I've ever met such an interesting femme in my whole life."
"Oh, she's definitely that, Terry. You have no idea how interesting she really is."
And when Terry found out the truth of Allison, he'd be in for a shock. Kit pondered how Terry might react to that, to find out that the brilliant, beautiful Master's graduate chemist he was dating used to be a stripper and a prostitute. Terry was a hard male to know, and always had been within the family, because he was so intelligent. That intelligence made Terry hard to talk to, hard to understand, because he was very, very complicated, and he was also very… standoffish. Kit guessed that being from Uncle Tom's family, the black sheep of the Vulpans, and having sisters like Bess and Dahlia, made Terry less willing to circulate in the family. Kit had barely known Terry before he was disowned. The only thing that wasn't a surprise to the family about Terry was that he had gone through school so fast. Everyone knew he was one of the smartest of all the Vulpans.
He could only guess at how Terry would react, and hope that it didn't turn into major drama. Allison was just starting to come out of her shell, and if Terry was vicious to her, it might really, really hurt her. But, it was a risk she'd have to take. Allison would have to be honest with him, honest right up front, and let him decide if she was worth the risk.
God help Terry if he did get vicious with Allison. Sheila would take that very personally, and would probably come after Terry like ten kinds of pissed off bitch, seeking vengeance for her friend's injured feelings. Sheila was generally harmless, but she could also be very, very nasty when she was mad.
But, that concern faded after being immersed back into the party. He, Hannah, John, and Jessie sat for a while and talked about the pregnancy, how Jessie was doing, how often her morning sickness struck, then Ben and Jenny joined them. "Ugh, stop talking about pregnancy," Jenny said with a frown.
"You should pay attention, Jennifer, because some day you'll go through the same thing," Hannah told her.
"I hope not," she said quickly.
"Yes, a child having a child would not be a good thing," Kit said mildly. "It would be hard to tell them apart."
Jenny whacked Kit on the shoulder.
Vil came over and put her paw on Kit's shoulder. "Bro, I hate to say it, but I'll have to gather up the air crew and head back. I need to be back in Boston."
"Already?"
"Kit, it's nearly seven," she said with a smile. "Time flies when you're with friends and family, doesn't it?"
"I didn't realize it was so late," he said, and looking around proved it. Half of them were already gone. Most of the sorority had gone back, as had Kevin and Sam, and Janet, Barry, Mike, and Lilly had also said their goodbyes.
"Come on, you and Jessie can ride with us to the airport and have the limo bring you back before I release it," she smiled.
"Sure, that would be nice," Jessie said. "Lupe! Just leave everything, we'll come help clean up when we get back!"
"Sure thing, babe!" Lupe called back from the grill, where he was grilling another hot dog while Dan and Mickey were sitting nearby, drinking beer. "We always like help when it comes time to clean up!"
Vil had hired one huge stretch limo for the day, and it was big enough to hold all twelve of them. It was divided into two seating areas, and while Ben, Jenny, Suzy, Muffy, and Corey sat in the middle seats, Kit, Jessie, Vil, and Terry sat in the back with John and Hannah. Stav and Marcus sat up front with the driver. Kit listened as Vil and Terry talked with John and Hannah, just enjoying what little was left of a good day. It had been so nice to have friends and family around, not to have any drama, and see Jessie's family getting along with what few members of Kit's family he would allow around them. Muffy was very friendly with Ben and Jenny, and Kit knew that they emailed and called each other. But he was even more glad that Terry had seemed to take well to Jessie's family as well. He had been kind and respectful to Jessie's parents, and had been friendly and social to Ben and Jenny… though for Terry, that was a double-edged sword. He was a hard male to get to know, and it wasn't because he wasn't friendly. It was because he was so smart, it was hard for furs to relate to him sometimes. He tried to be social, but he just seemed to come across as too introspective and aloof for most furs. But it was still good that he tried. Jenny seemed baffled by him, but he seemed to strike up a friendship with Ben.
They pulled into the airport, and up to the hangar housing Vil's private jet. The modified Bombardier Global 5000 was about five times bigger than any normal private jet, taking up a good piece of the hangar. They all filed out of the limo and hurried up to the jet, and Kit had to go up with them and see what changes she made to accommodate so many passengers. Vil's plane was so big it had enough room in it for a private sleeping area and galley in addition to a luxurious living room-like open area with seats, tables, and even a sectional couch that literally bisected the cabin, with the centerpiece plasma TV mounted into the ceiling so it could be retracted up out of the way when not in use. Vil had had the interior redone, he noticed. The galley was now behind the couch and was an open area, with a bar, little fridge, and cupboard, and the table that had flanked the couch was now in the galley. The couch had been lengthened to nearly bisect the cabin, providing a sense of separation between the galley and living area, with two doors at the opposite sides of the back wall, which was probably the private bedroom and the lavatory. There were four chairs across from the entry hatch now, with little tables between them, and there was a couch along the fuselage near the original couch and coffee table, forming a U of couch seating with a hole in it to reach the galley. The jet was big, big enough to be a commuter airliner, but it was built, designed, and operated almost exclusively for one fur and her passengers. The plane probably cost around fifty million dollars, but that was a drop in the bucket for Vulpan Shipyards, and Vil wasn't the one that ordered it anyway. Their father had been the one that had ordered the jet, but he had died before the shipyard had taken delivery. When Vil became the CEO, she inherited the jet right along with everything else. "Nice," Kit noted as Jessie looked in.
"You had it redesigned," Kit noted.
"Dad's design was… just weird," she said. "He wanted to make it feel like a house, so he split the cabin and put in those seats and that table, then created that narrow companionway between here and the galley with the really small office and stateroom, like closets. I never really liked it, so I had it redone. I left the sectional, had the little office and bedroom ripped out, and put the galley behind this area, then expanded the back of the plane to a stateroom where I put a real bed and a desk."
"Well, I think it looks nice. Kinda cramped this way, though."
"I didn't have enough seating for everyone," Vil laughed as she came up behind them. "Too much me, not enough we. I'll have the second couch pulled out when we get back and reduce the seats by the hatch to two to get my roomy feel back. I liked having lots of space up here, not feeling like I was in a plane."
"Well, you'll definitely get it," Kit noted as Avery came out from the cockpit. "Not much room for others, though."
"This is my plane," Vil said adamantly. "They can fly in the other one, or they can fly coach."
Kit laughed.
"It's good to see you again, Mister Vulpan," Avery told him, shaking his paw. "Just coming to look, or are you going back to Boston?"
"Just came up to look," he answered.
"You're looking radiant, Misses Vulpan. Congratulations on your coming blessing."
"Aww, thanks, Captain Avery," Jessie smiled, startling him by giving him a brief hug.
Kit and Jessie moved through them all, saying their goodbyes. "Now you be good to my daughter, Kit," Hannah ordered as he gave her a hug.
"I will, and I'm sorry we didn't get more of a chance to talk today."
"Well, there were plenty here competing for your attention," she smiled. "And we can talk almost any time, where some of those here don't have that luxury."
"I knew there was a reason I liked you, Hannah."
"Good sense if nothing else."
He laughed. "That and your towering sense of modesty," he smiled.
"Oh, go on, you," she said, lightly swatting him on the rump.
He hugged Vil one more time. "Thanks for a wonderful birthday, sis," he told her, holding her around her slender waist. "And thanks for the wonderful gift."
"Well, since you're being so magnanimous, how would you like a nice house? Two of them, actually," she said with a light smile. "There's this nice four bedroom colonial about two blocks from your apartment, but there's also this very nice six acre lot in a gated luxury community about a half hour from Austin that would be a lovely place to build a house of your own."
Kit chuckled ruefully. "No, Vil."
"You can keep saying it, but it's not going to sway me, bro," she grinned. "You aren't a vagabond anymore, and you and Jessie aren't a young couple anymore. You're going to have a baby. You're going to be a family. And families shouldn't live in apartments. They should live in houses."
"Lots of families live in apartments," Jessie protested. "There's nothing wrong with an apartment!"
"Oh yes there is, young lady," Hannah said authoritatively. "The difference is control. When you own your own house, you own that house. You are not at the mercy of someone else."
"I couldn't have said it better myself, Hannah," Vil said with an approving nod. "You're just one nasty fight with Lupe away from being in a very bad predicament, and you are pregnant, Jessie. I want you two in a house, a nice house where you are secure, a place that is all yours and where nobody can tell you what you can and cannot do."
"Except for you?" Kit asked with a dark look.
"Well naturally except for me," she said with a surprisingly playful smile.
"Let's not ruin this day with a fight now," Kit said quickly. "Let's just agree that we'll fight this battle another day."
Vil laughed. "I'll agree to that, bro," she said, hugging him again. "Happy birthday. I love you."
"I love you too, you little pain in the neck," he answered.
"Hey, no fighting," she teased, then she stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. "We have to go now, bro. I'll call you tomorrow morning."
Kit and Jessie hugged and kissed their way through the plane, and then they hurried out. Vil waved to them from the hatchway, and then Avery closed it. Kit kept his arm around Jessie's waist as they waved to those looking through the windows, who waved back, then they had to retreat so the jet could start its engines and taxi out.
"You think she was serious about the house?" Jessie asked.
"Deadly," he answered. "You don't know her the way I do, pretty kitty. She's starting to dig her claws into us, and she's going to get more and demanding. It will be for our own good, of course, that's how she'll justify all of it. She has it in her head that we should live in a house, and she won't stop until she gets what she wants… or I step on her."
"Well, I like it at the apartment. I mean, it would be nice to own our own house, but I love Lupe and Dan and Mickey, and living close to Sheila, and being close to the sorority."
"And I love not having to mow grass, pay property taxes, live bowed at the throne of a mortgage company, or try to figure out how to fix a leaky sink," Kit said, which made Jessie giggle.
"My poor inept fox," she teased, kissing him on the cheek. "We'll have to enroll you in those do it yourself courses they offer at Home Depot."
"I fight my battles with a keyboard, not a hammer," he said, which made her laugh.
The jet's engines started, and they watched the plane taxi out of the yawing doors. "Well, happy birthday, my handsome fox," Jessie told him, putting her head on his shoulder as they watched Vil's plane taxi out. "I hope you liked your gift."
"Now that I won't complain about," he chuckled. "It's the completion of a boyhood dream. You know what's going to make it so wonderful?"
"What?"
"You'll be there with me," he told her.
"Aww, you're so sweet."
"Let's go home, love. You have school in the morning."
"And you still have Sheila."
"Sheila? What about Sheila?"
Jessie gave him a long, serious look.
"Oh, crap," Kit breathed.
Sheila was indeed waiting for him at home She gave him a huge grin and moved to grab his arm as he came into the courtyard, but he just pulled away from her. "After we help clean up."
"Stall all you want, I've got plans," she said eagerly.
Kit, Jessie, and Sheila helped Dan, Mickey, and Lupe clean up. The femmes cleaned up the litter and folded up the tablecloths–Sheila grumbling about doing manual labor the whole time–while the males folded the tables and carried them to the show unit to store back in a bedroom, mainly because Lupe was taking no more tenants while the construction was going on… which made the show unit obsolete and had turned it into a storage space. Dan and Mickey moved the grills back as Kit, Jessie, and Sheila swept up, and then Lupe stored the leftover food in his fridge and the storage unit fridge after splitting it with Dan and Mickey, the other two bachelors. "Well, we won't be begging for your leftovers for a week, Jessie," Dan grinned as he carried a large Tupperware container of hot dogs towards his apartment.
"My fridge hasn't recovered from your last visit," Dan!" Jessie teased in reply.
After everything was cleaned up and restored to normal, Sheila grabbed possessive hold of Kit's arm. "Don't wait up for us, Jessie," Sheila said with a dangerous smile. "In fact, don't expect to see us until some time next week. It's time for Kit's initiation into the Party Pack!" She flipped her phone open and hit a button. "It's time," she said into the phone.
Not twenty seconds later, a limo pulled out and stopped in the street. The door opened, and about half of the sorority boiled out; Sandy, the other Jessie, Charlotte, Danielle, Lisa, and three of their new pledges, Shannon, Annette, and Vicky. They were giggling as they rushed up, all of them wearing dance club outfits, and they surrounded Kit. Paws grabbed him and started dragging him to the limo, which made him laugh. "We'll bring him back to you, Jessie," Sheila said over her shoulder as she sauntered behind the pack of femmes. "I can't guarantee he'll be able to walk straight, though."
"Don't you do anything illegal!" Jessie shouted. "And have a good time!"
"I don't think they're going to give me a choice in the matter, pretty kitty!" Kit called in reply.
"Damn right you won't!" Sheila agreed with an evil, ominous laugh as he was physically dragged into the limousine.