Chapter 8
Judging from the fireworks he could hear over the cell, Hannah reacted to the news pretty much well the way he expected.
He sat on the couch as Jessie paced back and forth through the living room, listening to her. To her credit, she didn't try to hedge or try to work her into it. Jessie knew that her mother would object, so she went right to the point. Within two minutes of making the call, the message was delivered… in surprising terms.
"Mom, listen. Kit proposed to me, and I accepted," she stated, in an even voice. That was it. No softening the blow, no using more flowery language. The facts, straight up.
The eruption came immediately. Kit couldn't make out Hannah's words, but he could definitely hear her screaming, even from that distance. Hannah raged at her daughter for long moments, as Jessie remained quiet, but then she retaliated when Hannah played out the initial salvo. "Now you listen to me!" Jessie barked. "I don't care how you feel about it, Mom! This is my life! I love him, and I want to marry him! You can either accept that, or you can not accept it. That's your choice. But don't ever think that there is any way you can ever make me change my mind."
He heard her tone change, from demanding and outraged to wheedling, but Jessie just stonewalled her. "If you're not going to do anything but tell me how I'm messing up my life, mother, than I think I have nothing more to say to you. Allow me to introduce you to your favorite way to end an argument!"
Then she hung up.
Kit laughed delightedly, then winced a little when it sent a little shiver of pain through his shoulder. "That's giving her her own medicine," he said with an approving nod.
The phone rang again almost immediately. Jessie opened it, closed it, then deliberately turned it off. "I'm glad she doesn't have my cell number," she laughed. "Let's call Rick and tell him the news."
The news was spread quickly. It was Friday, the late day at work, so everyone was there when Jessie called them. "He's putting it on the speaker in the office," she told him, as she set the cellphone to speaker as well and held it out for them. "Rick? Guys?" Jessie called.
"We're here, hon," Rick said.
"All of us!" Lilly called.
"So, what did he say?" Marty asked.
"That's a stupid question, Marty!" Kit called. "But I had to do it properly. Kneeling down and everything."
There was a wild celebratory whoop from the office. "Congratulations, guys!" Jeffrey said.
"I'll put it up on the website!" Mike called happily. "Did you finish that drawing, Jeffrey?"
"I drew up a new board announcing the engagement," Jeffrey said to them. "It has you two kissing, and just the word yes in big letters across the top," he added.
"You didn't!" Jessie gasped, her cheeks ruffling.
"Hey, if you're gonna propose in a magazine, it's only fair to the readers to see the answer," Jeffrey laughed.
"Congratulations you two, really," Rick said. "Son, I'll drop by in a few minutes and bring you your laptop."
"Thanks, boss."
"What did the hospital say?"
"I'm on extended rest at home," he answered. "Restricted activity, but I hope to be back at work in a couple of weeks at the most. It's not that strenuous to sit at a desk, after all. I just won't be typing very fast until I get rid of this sling," he chuckled.
"Don't push yourself, bud," Barry called. "We'll be here."
"Maybe I teach you edit while your arm heals," Savid offered.
"Hey, that'd be cool," Kit said brightly.
"Only if you can do it here," Jessie warned. "The doctor told him to rest, and I'll make sure he rests," she said. "I'm going to move in with him."
"You go femme!" Lilly said happily. "Get those claws in him and don't let go 'til after he says I do!"
"She's not going to be dragging me to the altar, Lilly," Kit laughed. "I'm entering into that nightmare willing and able."
"Nightmare?" Jessie asked with an arched brow.
"I'll enjoy the torment," he said, giving her a kiss.
"I hope so," she teased, nuzzling him.
"Now if only we had someone there to take pictures of that warm and fuzzy moment," Mike mused, which made Kit laugh.
"Well, I think we'll let you get back to work," Jessie told them. "I need to go buy some groceries and cook him something for dinner."
"No, no, no cooking," Rick said. "I'm coming by, I'll bring you something. What do you want?"
"Pizza," Kit said hungrily.
Rick laughed. "Pizza it is. What kind and where from?"
"Pizza Hut," they said in unison "A medium supreme for me," Kit said.
"Get me something without mushrooms," Jessie said. "Outside of that, I'm not picky."
"Got it. I should be down in about half an hour, kids. Don't start eating the carpet before I get there."
Jessie laughed. "I may not be here, Rick, I still have to go to the store. There's almost nothing to eat here. Kit's been starving himself to buy my ring. And I'm not too happy about that," she said, giving him a stern look.
"Well, I am," he told her.
"Uh, you have money for that, hon? I can–"
"I'm fine, Rick. Vil gave me a pre-engagement present."
"Oh, she did not–"
"It's alright, Kit," she said placatingly. "She knew you were broke because you bought the ring. She gave me two thousand dollars to hold us over until you get better. We do have to pay the rent and the bills and eat, you know. And since you don't have insurance, she didn't know if you had any kind of workman's comp to pay you while you heal."
"Well, I guess that's alright," he said. "At least she didn't try to give you a check. I wouldn't put it past her."
"She's tried," Jessie giggled. "But I keep telling her no."
"Well, that was nice of her," Marty said. "Think she might want to take care of me?"
"You're not her type, Marty," Kit chuckled.
"Well, I wouldn't have let you get tossed into the street," Rick chuckled. "You're not just my workers, you're my family too. And families watch out for each other."
"Aww, I feel a group hug coming on," Mike said in a gushy voice, then he squealed when someone must have slapped him or something.
"I'll get a move on, kids. Be there in a bit."
"Well, what shall we do while we wait for Rick?" Jessie asked after they said their goodbyes and closed the phone.
"I can think of something, future Misses Vulpan," he said, pulling her against him. She giggled and cuddled in with him.
"I think I can go to the store after we eat," she said with a contented sigh, leaning her head against his shoulder and neck, and then she began to purr.
John thought that perhaps Hannah had gone a bit too far this time.
He sat in his chair in front of the TV, turned off, with a book in his paws, trying to focus on reading while Hannah stormed around the house, carrying the telephone with her. She'd been trying to call Jessica back for nearly two hours, hitting redail every few minutes, pacing back and forth and back and forth, from the kitchen to the foyer and back again. She was quite furious and outraged, and John was keeping his mouth shut.
Unlike Hannah, John wasn't half as opposed to the idea. Oh, he certainly felt that Jessica was too young to get married, and that she should have most definitely finished school first… and that might still happen. What little he'd managed to piece together so far was that Jessica was engaged, that she didn't elope. There was time to try to convince her to hold off on the actual wedding until after she graduated from school, when she could more diligently focus herself on the change of lifestyle that came with having a spouse. But where Hannah was violently opposed to Jessica's choice in males, John wasn't. Kit seemed to be a decent, hard-working sort that would treat Jessica well, but no amount of trying to explain it to Hannah was going to move her. For her, this was personal, and it wasn't about Jessica. It was about her own father.
He could see that rather clearly. Hannah's father was a fox, and he had not been a good father to her, nor a good husband to her mother. He'd been a lazy, shiftless sort who cheated on Hannah's mother at the drop of a hat, yet her mother wouldn't leave him because she loved him. It was quite a sad situation, actually. Victor had used Patricia, living off of her, cheating on her, and when Hannah was nine, Patricia had finally reached her limit and laid down an ultimatum to Victor. He would either shape up or ship out.
And he left… but not before cleaning out the bank accounts and taking as much furniture as he could fit in his truck while Patricia was at work and Hannah and her two brothers were at school.
Hannah spent most of her childhood listening to her mother tell her how no-good her fox father was, and it developed a prejudice against foxes in her mind. To her, all foxes were like her father. If Kit were a cat or a dog or something, John felt she wouldn't be quite this adamant about it, though she would still object to it. But since he was a fox, Hannah's personal prejudices were building on her protective impulses.
He almost felt sorry for her. Jessica was a very demure, shy young lady, but she was very willful. If she'd dug her claws in about marrying the fox, she wasn't going to be moved. Hannah could crash against that wall for the rest of her life, and it wasn't going to move. The only thing that would change Jessica's mind was herself, and the harder Hannah tried, the more she was going to alienate her daughter. Jessica loved her mother, but every child had a limit, and Hannah would push her to that limit. Hannah was just as willful as Jessica, and now that they were put on a collision course with each other, a train wreck was a virtual certainty. All he could hope was that the two of them didn't permanently poison their relationship.
He sighed a little as Hannah stormed through the living room, then reappeared immediately, stopped to dial the fox's number, and then she actually cursed and continued on. Ben came down from upstairs as she stormed past, a surprised look on his face. Ben was a very burly young man, tall and muscular, which was perfect for a football player. Ben took after his father in his coloration, with cream-colored fur everywhere but a dark patch of fur on his right shoulder and the right side of his back, hidden under his shirt. "Did Mom just say what I think she said?" he asked.
"Probably, son," John said evenly, turning the page.
"What's got her tail under the rocking chair?"
"Jessica."
"What did Jessie do now?"
"It seems that her boyfriend proposed to her, and she accepted."
"Woah, really?" John nodded. "Wow, I never thought Jessie would do something like that. No wonder Mom's trying to claw up the furniture. I guess this is a bad time to ask to borrow the car," he chuckled.
John was about to chide his son, but the doorbell rang. "I got it, it's probably Hank," Ben said, hurrying to the door. John went back to his book as Hannah came out of the kitchen. "Uh, can I help you?"
"I'm here to see your parents," came an unknown voice.
"Sure. Please, come in."
"Who is it, Ben?" Hannah asked as she moved towards the foyer, which was around the corner from the living room, just past the stairs. John heard Hannah gasp when she got to the corner. "I don't believe we've met," Hannah said, in a somewhat unfriendly tone.
"My name is Vilenne Vulpan," came the reply. The sound of that name made John almost drop his book. Vilenne Vulpan? The boy's sister, who he said was rich? "Kit is my brother, and I'm here to talk to you."
"Uh, please, come in," Hannah said, her voice a little uncertain. John looked up as Ben and Hannah led a rather short vixen into the living room. She was dressed in a plain gray business suit, with a skirt instead of slacks, and a little black tab-tie. Her eyes were just like the pictures that he'd seen on the computer of Kit, with her left eye amber and her right eye green. It must be some kind of shared trait between the two of them. Two huge panther males stepped into the room behind her, dressed in black suits, one of them carrying a briefcase.
John put his book in the chair beside him and stood up, then went over and shook her paw. "I'm John Williams," he said in introduction. "My wife Hannah, and our son Ben. Please, sit down."
She seated herself on the couch, her thick tail tucked in beside her, and she gave them a direct look as John and Hannah sat down in their chairs. Hannah looked a trifle piqued. Ben stood by the stairs, not getting involved but curious enough to hang around to listen. "First off. Has Jessie called?"
"Yes, she called," Hannah said with pinched fury. "Have you talked to her? Do you know what she said?"
"She's engaged," Vilenne said simply. "To my brother."
"And I would assume that your visit concerns this engagement? If I recall, you live in Boston, madam," John said calmly, cutting off the certainly biting remark that Hannah was about to deliver. "What brings you to Cincinnati?"
"I was on my way home," she said. "I arranged to stop over here so we could talk. First thing, I suppose. Did Jessie tell you what happened?"
"Not concerning the engagement?"
Vilenne shook her head. "My brother, Kit, was shot just outside his office a few days ago," she told them.
Hannah gave her a startled look, and John gasped. "Dear Lord, is he alright?"
"He's home now," she told them calmly. "As far as gunshot wounds go, he was very lucky. His injury wasn't bad, and he's already home and on the mend. He'll be just fine."
"Well, that's good news at least."
"Thank you for your concern. But, obviously, that's not why I'm here. I'm here about your daughter and my brother." She leaned back a little. "Jessie told me that you're not… happy, about them."
"No, I'm not," Hannah finally said, a bit frostily.
"Why?" Vilenne asked simply.
"Because she shouldn't be fooling around with boys while in school," Hannah said immediately. "And definitely not with a boy I don't know!"
"Have you tried to get to know him, or did you just immediately decide not to?" she asked, quite conversationally.
Hannah drew herself up, preparing to let this young vixen have it, but John raised his paw. Hannah might be a formidable woman, but this slight little vixen just oozed confidence. If Hannah got into a shouting match with her, she wasn't going to win. "Hannah, dear," he said urbanely.
"Don't you dear me, John!" she said icily. "It's quite clear she's siding with them on this matter!"
"Of course I am," she said pleasantly. "I don't think you understand those two very well, Misses Williams. You decided to take a stand without investigating. You don't know my brother the way I do."
"And you don't know my daughter!"
"I know her quite well. We talk at least once a week," she said dismissively. "Sometimes as often as every day."
Hannah came up short. "She's never told me that!"
"That's because every time you call, all you ever do is nag her about my brother," she answered.
Hannah took a stiff expression at the word nag. "I'm only doing what's best for Jessica!"
"What's best for Jessie? I don't think so. What's best for Jessie is to marry Kit," she said calmly.
Hannah was about to start yelling, but John brought her up short. "And what makes you believe that?" he asked.
"Because Jessie is the best thing that ever happened to my brother," she answered casually. "He absolutely worships her."
"That's no reason why it's best for Jessie, it's only what's best for him!" Hannah snapped. "He'll just use her and then throw her away when he's done!"
"Just like a fox?" Vilenne asked simply.
Hannah's cheeks ruffled.
"Stav," she called, reaching out her paw. One of the two panthers, the one with the briefcase, stepped forward and gave her the briefcase. "You don't know my brother, Misses Williams," she said calmly as she opened it on her lap. "I don't think you appreciate what life has been like for him." She took out a small pack of papers. "Our mother died when he was eight," she began. "When that happened, our father pulled away from us. My father suffered from the same curse as my brother, Misses Williams. He loved too much. When my mother died, it destroyed him inside. He lost all interest in me and my brother, he left us to be raised by our butler and nannies. Seeing us reminded him of her, and he couldn't stand it.
"That set the stage, I suppose. Kit hated our father for rejecting us, and he acted out. It got even worse when our father got over his grief enough to take interest in Kit again, but it wasn't love. He wanted Kit to train to be the next Vulpan in line to run the family business. I won't go into the details of it, but it ended when Kit turned sixteen, and he left the family after our father issued an ultimatum. When he did that, my father disowned him, but he couldn't let it go. My father hounded my brother from that moment on. He couldn't accept that Kit rejected him, and his obsession to bend Kit to his will became total hatred. My father did everything in his power to ruin Kit's life after he left, to force him to crawl on his knees back to the family and beg to be taken back in. My father arranged it so Kit's life was hell. He had people steal his things. He would get Kit fired from any job he could get. He once even had someone set fire to the apartment building where Kit was staying with a friend. Kit had no peace, Misses Williams. No peace, no safety, nothing. Can you imagine that, Misses Williams? A sixteen year old rich kid thrown on the streets, with no inkling of how the real world works, and a father with hundreds of millions of dollars trying to ruin anything he built for himself? Sometimes I'm amazed he managed to survive, but my brother is very strong.
"He wasn't alone, though. I love my brother, Misses Williams. When our mother died, I more or less became his mother. After our father disowned him, I did my best to make sure he could make it."
"Pardon my curiosity, but what does any of that have to do with my daughter?" Hannah asked coldly. "We all had hard childhoods. So he made it, big deal. From the way it sounds, I'd not want my Jessica to have anything to do with someone carrying so many childhood scars. It just proves he's no good for my daughter."
"Hannah!" John said in surprise.
"I see you're putting your own scars into this," Vilenne said with surprising calm. She opened one of the files in her paws. "This is the record of your father, Victor Cremeans," she said, which made Hannah's eyes bulge. "Do you hate my brother because of who he is, or do you hate him because he reminds you of your father?" she asked with direct eyes.
"How dare you!" Hannah snapped, jumping to her feet, but the slender little fox just gave her a long, steady stare, a chilling stare that seemed to suck the defiance right out of his wife.
"You're not dealing with a child you can shout down, Misses Williams," the little fox said with a biting tone. "I stare down the rulers of nations on a daily basis. You do not intimidate me in the slightest." She closed the folder, then opened a different file. "I would guess that that's the main reason you hate my brother so much, but I think there's a little more to it. The past is the past, Misses Williams. The days of the Columbus Twenty are long past. Kit fully knows that Jessie is a mixed breed. She told him herself, I believe on their second date. My brother doesn't care about it. All he sees is her, not who her parents are. Or grandparents, in this case. Kit loves her for who she is, Misses Williams, not what she is."
"How did you know about that?" Hannah gasped, dropping back to her chair heavily, her eyes wide.
"I'm a businessfemme, Misses Williams. I never enter into any situation without being fully prepared. It took only about twenty minutes of studying your family to get an idea of why you hate my brother so much, and your history is a simple matter to dig up once one knows your maiden name. Simply put, Misses Williams, my brother is not your father, and her heritage never once crossed his mind. I told you where he comes from so you could get an idea of what kind of fox he is. My brother is strong, Misses Williams. He stood up to everything my father could throw at him, and he came through it. You have no idea how courageous he is. If you ever met my family, you'd understand. My family is not nice, Misses Williams. When Kit was disowned, they abandoned him, because they were more interested in the family's money than they were in my brother. When it was clear he wasn't going to be the heir, and my father was disowning him, they threw him away like so much garbage. When he was hit by a car and nearly killed, I heard my uncles complain that he survived, and my father was going to refuse to allow anyone to pay his bills in hopes that the lack of treatment would kill him."
Hannah's jaw dropped and she gaped at the vixen in shock. John felt his own level of outrage himself.
"Maybe now you understand what my brother faced?" she asked simply. "After that, Kit totally abandoned the family, except for me. He hates them now, and he won't have anything to do with them. He wants to make it on his own, without his family name, and without the family's money. Does that give you an idea how determined he is? Now, the other side of that is simple, Misses Williams. My brother is in love with Jessie. And I'm not talking about puppy love. He loves her. And before you ask how I know, mind that I basically raised him after our mother died, Misses Williams. I know him better than anyone on this planet.
"Before he met Jessie, my brother lived a transient life. He would ride a bus somewhere, get off, and work menial jobs until he had enough money to move on. Sometimes I think he did it to hide from our family, because they still hate him, and a family as rich as mine has a very long arm. Sometimes, I think he was looking for something. He was doing the same thing in Austin, and he was only a couple of days from leaving when he met Jessie. And that changed everything.
"Within three days of meeting her, Misses Williams, he had a job, an apartment, and was starting to build a real life for himself," she explained. "And he did it all just so he could date your daughter. He didn't want her going out with a homeless dishwasher, so he got a good job at a magazine, he got an apartment, and he created a stable foundation for himself so he could court her. That's how much he loves her, Misses Williams. He completely changed his entire way of life just to be worthy of her."
She shuffled through the files in her paws. "I'm telling you this for two reasons. The first is so you can understand just how much Kit loves Jessie. She's his entire life, and he'd walk through fire for her. The second is so you understand my brother a little better. He's strong and courageous, and he won't give up on Jessie. He won't leave her, and he'll always be there for her. All he wants to do now is make her happy, even to the point of letting me do things for her he never let me do for him," she said with a humorless chuckle. "He never let me buy him a car before he met her, but he didn't mind one bit when I bought one for her."
She gave Hannah another of those long, slightly ominous looks. "Now, Misses Williams. Did you have something to say to me?"
It hung there for a long moment. Hannah looked about ready to lay an egg, but then she screwed up her courage and drew herself up in her chair. "I don't think a child pretending at being an adult should be walking in here telling me how I should think about my own daughter," she declared with narrow eyes.
"This isn't about your daughter. This is about my brother," she said simply. "And I may be young, Misses Williams, but I run a multi-billion dollar corporation. I think that gives me at least the leeway to presume to think I know as much as someone your age, even if you're almost old enough to be my mother."
John cut it off before Hannah had a conniption. "I think you're quite brave for coming here, but I think this is something Kit should have done himself."
"No, that would have been quite impossible," Vilenne said simply, staring at Hannah. "Because your wife would have never given him a chance."
"Why should I give him a chance?" Hannah snapped. "I don't have to even see him to know what kind of male he is!"
"Hannah, dear, you're being rude," John told her, a bit sternly.
"I don't have to be polite!" she said hotly, whirling on him. "She can't defend that tramp of a brother of hers! Didn't you hear her? He's a bum, a hobo! He'll leave our Jessie the instant he's bored with her!"
"Dear, I think you're only hearing what you want to hear," John said, with more authority. "I've humored you up to this point because I felt you'd eventually come to your senses, but this has gone on quite long enough. From what I know of Kit and what I've heard today, I'm actually quite at ease about the idea of him marrying Jessica."
"You can't be serious!" she gasped.
"Deadly. You took an instant dislike to the boy out of anger because Jessica was going out, and you refuse to let it go, even when it's abundantly clear that this is not Jessie going steady with Jack Singer back in high school. This is our Jessica finding a husband, which is what you've wanted for her all along. Now, you should take a good long look at this, Hannah. If you don't relent, you will push Jessie away. She's not going to give up on this marriage just because you disapprove. I'm rather sure of that."
"Perhaps if you did get to see them, you'd change your mind," Vilenne noted, taking a thick stack of photos out of her briefcase, inside a folder, and putting them on the coffee table between them.
"I don't want to see them! And I will not back down, John! That boy is going to ruin her life, you mark my words! And I will not stand for it!"
"Well, then, I guess my time here is done," she said, putting the papers back in her briefcase and closing it. "Since that's your decision, then now you will listen to mine. Kit and Jessie are getting married. Jessie wanted you to plan her wedding, as is traditional, but I'll be telling her that that's quite impossible. I'll have her plan it herself, and I'll be paying for it. And if I pay for it, you will not be invited," she said coldly to Hannah. "But you're more than welcome to come and give her away, Mister Williams," she said in a much more cordial tone. "And I'll always be there for them, Misses Williams. If they have problems, they will come to me. When they need advice, they will come to me. When they need help, they will come to me. I will be the one having baby showers for Jessie, and sending their children birthday cards. I will be the part of their lives that you refuse to be. I will always be there to support them and help them, because I love my brother and I love Jessie, and I want them to be happy.
"There was a lesson in my story, Misses Williams, one you seem to have missed. My father's anger with my brother turned into an obsession of hatred that destroyed Kit's life and consumed my father like cancer. Before my father died, his hatred of Kit had blackened his soul and turned him into a miserable wretch. I think his heart gave out because it could no longer keep a soul like his alive on this Earth any longer. What I've heard from you here tonight is just the same as I heard from my father. Your hate has no rationality. It is hate for the sake of hate. And if you're not careful, you will turn out exactly like my father. You will destroy everything good in your life, you will drive your daughter away, and your actions will tear your family apart like paper, just like it did mine."
Hannah jumped to her feet and took a threatening step towards the vixen. Ben almost lunged to intercede, but one of those huge panthers put a big paw in front of him and shook his head. Vilenne took a business card from her pocket and boldly stepped past Hannah and handed it to him. "This is my card, Mister Williams," she said. "The number written in pencil at the bottom is to my personal cell phone. Call that number, and you will get me directly. If you have any questions, or you ever need help, just call me. You're now a part of my family, and you'll find that I'm always willing to help."
"I'll, ah, I'll keep that in mind," he said, glancing at Hannah. "I must say, you're a very interesting young vixen."
Vilenne gave him an amazingly charming smile. "I'm full of surprises, Mister Williams," she told him. "Marcus, could you call the car around?"
"Certainly, madam," one of the two panthers said with a nod, and quickly let himself out.
"I'll be going back to Boston now," she told them. "I hope you think about what I said, Misses Williams, and ask yourself if holding on to your hate is worth losing your daughter." She walked away from them before Hannah could respond, but she stopped in front of Ben, who looked down at her with some surprise. "Ben, is it? Or do you go by Benjamin?" she asked.
"Uh, Ben, ma'am," he said uncertainly.
"You're one hell of a running back," she said with a grin.
"How do you know that?"
"I had Stav dig up some tape of your games. Like I said, I'm thorough when I come to a meeting," she winked. "I had your entire life histories in those papers I pulled out of my briefcase. You should think about playing college ball. Given your moves, I think you could make it all the way to the NFL."
"I'm hoping to."
"Hmm," she mused. "Which college do you want to play for?"
"Uh, well, I kinda want to play for Ohio State. I've been a Buckeye fan for like all my life."
"Ohio State, eh?" she said with a mysterious smile. "I'm a U-Mass fan, myself. Too bad you don't want to be a Minuteman, they could use a running game." She patted him on the forearm. "Don't worry too much, Ben. As good as you are, I'm sure you'll get an offer from someone."
John escorted her to the door, and a look outside showed a limo sitting on the street, the other panther at the door waiting for them. "I should thank you for spending the time and effort to come see us," he told her. "Even if you didn't get the outcome you wanted."
"Oh, I'm not so sure about that," she said with a smile. "At least you understand."
"Ah, yes, well, you'll find that when my wife digs in her claws, she's almost impossible to move. It may take a few years for her to come around, when she sees beyond any shadow of a doubt that Jessica and Kit will stay together."
"What she misses in that time is her own fault," Vilenne shrugged. "All I care about is that Jessie will be unhappy because of her mother's adamance, because nothing will stop her from marrying Kit."
"She inherited her mother's stubbornness," John chuckled.
"And her father's mind," Vilenne added.
"Why thank you."
"Just try to make it clear to her, Mister Williams. She's on the losing end, and if she doesn't admit defeat gracefully, she may miss out."
"I can only try."
"That's all I can ask, Mister Williams."
"I think you can call me John," he chuckled.
"John," she smiled. "My friends and family call me Vil."
"Vil."
"It was nice meeting you. Good evening."
"You too."
He watched her go, escorted by that hulk of a panther. The other panther opened the door for her and let her in, they got in with her, and then the limo drove away.
That, was a dangerous young vixen, he realized. Young, yes, but intelligent, and absolutely fearless. She took on a hostile Hannah in her own home, and stared her down. And Hannah was not timid!
He leaned against the doorframe and smiled. Well, if anything, he was even more secure in the idea of Jessica marrying Kit. Vilenne–Vil–had made it clear that she would be watching over them like a guardian angel.
A guardian angel with millions of dollars in the bank.
He closed the door and came back into the living room, where Hannah sat in her chair, still holding the phone, a look of fury and indignation on her face. She got up and threw the phone into her chair, then stormed to the stairs. "You can sleep on the couch," she declared in a cold tone, then stomped up. Her footsteps pounded across the ceiling, and then he heard a door slam.
"Woah," Ben said in a low tone. "I think Mom's a little mad."
"You think, son?" John chuckled. "Just give her time. That young vixen put some pretty convincing truths in front of her, and she's just too stubborn to admit she's wrong."
"You think she's wrong?"
"I know she's wrong, son," he said simply. "I think Vilenne was right about that. She hates Jessica's boyfriend because he's a fox, not because of who he is. She looks at him and only sees what her father did to her family."
"I never took Mom as a purist," he mused. "Especially since she's a mixed breed herself. She didn't say anything at all when I was going out with Shelly."
"She's not a purist, son, she's just biased against foxes."
"Good thing she looks totally like a cat," Ben chuckled. "Else she'd have some issues every time she looks in a mirror." He grinned. "You know, there's this total hottie vixen at school named Amanda. Maybe she'd go out with me."
"Ben?"
"Yeah Dad?"
"Are you trying to kill your mother?"
Ben laughed. "I have to keep my options open here, Dad. You know, that's something I always wanted to ask her."
"What?"
"What was it like for her when she was growing up? I mean, we got tons of mixed breeds at school. It's no big deal. Heck, America has so many breeds now, it's sometimes hard to even find your own breed to go out with. I think some of them look just awesome, like Zoe. She's half tiger, half wolf, and she has black stripes and her tail–uh, well, I've read my history books. Not many guys can say his mom is in a history book. What was it like for her?"
"It wasn't easy for her, but she was a very resilient young femme," John chuckled. "I remember when she started school, that first day," he said musingly. "It was during the start of desegregation, Ben. Back then, being a mixed breed was just the same as being an African fur. Probably worse, if you really want my opinion. African breeds at least had their pure lines, but mixed breeds like Hannah, well, that was a moral taboo, even among European and American breeds. Back then, son, breeds kept strictly to themselves, and mixed breeds were worse than children born out of wedlock. Children like her had much more to deal with than racial bigotry, because purists are even more fanatical than racists. They were discriminated against by everyone, even the African breeds. They had no place, no status. Slavery ended after the Civil War, but the Mixed Breed Emancipation Act didn't pass until after femme suffrage. Mixed breeds were still little more than slaves until then, they didn't even have the right to vote, all because of the fanaticism of the purists. You should have seen her, Ben," he sighed. "Having to go through all those parents who were yelling and screaming all those nasty things at her, throwing things at her. But she never once lost her temper. She just kept her head high and outclassed them all. I think that's when I fell in love with her," he sighed. "God, were my parents against it," he chuckled. "But Hannah charmed them right out of it. Hopefully, Jessie and Kit can charm her out of her attitude."
"Huh. I've always been afraid to ask Mom about that."
"She doesn't like to talk about it. After all, son, she does look just like a cat. She never had to reveal she was a mixed breed. You'd never tell it from looking at her."
"Why did she then?"
"Because she had something to prove," he said. "She wanted to show the world that even though she was a mixed breed, she was still a proud femme who was going to make something of herself. Besides, son, her brothers were visibly mixed breed. If she would have hidden behind a lie of pure blood, it would have been insult to her brothers, and she loved them too much to do that to them."
"It's a shame. I woulda liked to have met them."
"They were very nice," John told him, remembering those two, with their fox muzzles and cat ears, fox mittens and cat's claws. "And they loved their big sister. They never deserved what happened to them. But that's a sign of those times, son. Jeb and Will died because of the stupidity of hate. Don't ever forget that lesson."
"You know something, Dad?"
"What?"
"It sounds like Mom forgot that lesson."
John blinked, and looked at his son. "You know, Ben, I think you're right. And I think it's about time someone reminded her of that."
"So, can I borrow the car?"
"Go ahead. Be back by eleven."
"Aww, man!" he sighed, then he picked up the keys from the tray where John kept them and cleared out.
John went upstairs and knocked on the bedroom door. "I have nothing to say to you!" she shouted from inside.
"Well, I have plenty to say to you, dear," he said seriously. He opened the door and saw her sitting on the bed, her arms crossed, looking away from him. And for a brief moment, he saw the young, strong femme he'd known in high school, sitting there with her head held high despite the nasty things the others were whispering to her. That strength had been her salvation back then, but it was working against her now. "I think you're being totally unfair, and I wanted you to know that."
"I cannot sit by and watch my oldest girl's life be torn apart," she said coldly. "That fox will be nothing but heartache for her."
"And how can you know that?" he asked. "All you've ever done is talk to him over the phone, and as I recall, you were very unfriendly! Is it any surprise you got a bad impression from him, since that's what you wanted to get from the start?"
"Don't cloud the issue, John!" she shouted.
"I think you're the one clouding the issue here, Hannah," he told her sternly. "I have to ask you this, dear. Did you appreciate the way my parents treated you when you were younger?"
She gave him a startled look.
"Dear, you're treating him the way they used to treat you," he pointed out. "They made up their minds about you without ever meeting you, but you changed their minds. Don't you remember?"
She sighed, then smiled a little. "Yes, I remember."
"They were wrong about you. They were very wrong about you, and they admitted it. It took my mother a little longer to admit it than my father, but they eventually did."
She put her paws on her knees and leaned forward, her long-haired tail swishing back and forth behind her. Jessica had inherited her mother's tail, and it looked good on both of them. "I just can't accept it, John. I don't like it. He's going to break her heart."
"Dear, she's an adult. I think she's more than capable of dealing with a broken heart, if it would come to that. And personally, I disagree with you. I talked to him for a quite a while, and I think he's sincerely in love with her."
"So was my father with my mother, at first," she said pointedly. "You just can't trust foxes where their hearts are concerned." She gave a slight chuckle. "And him sending his sister here was just dirty. I thought she was going to put me over her knee and spank me there for a minute."
"She is a rather formidable young vixen, isn't she?" John chuckled, coming over and sitting down on the bed, taking her paw in his own. "Dear, I understand you're worried, but understand that I think you're wrong. I object to the engagement simply because I think Jessica should finish school before getting married, but I have nothing against Kit otherwise. Once she finishes school, I'd be quite content to see them marry. And despite the fact we disagree, I still love you."
She gave him a sidelong look, then sighed. "You don't have to sleep on the couch tonight, John," she declared.
"Who says I would have? There's always Jenny's room. If you can get past all the stuffed animals."
Hannah giggled. "I'm sorry I yelled at you, John. That was uncalled for."
"All's forgiven, my sweet," he said, leaning over and kissing her on the cheek. "Now, for once, you are going to let me cook. I think you have something you need to think about."
John left her sitting on the bed. He glanced at her before closing the door, saw her lean back on her paws, looking up at the ceiling, already in thought.
He left her and went down to the kitchen, and busied himself with making dinner. He liked to cook, but Hannah thought it was a scandal if he did, so he rarely got the chance. He decided on something simple, so he started putting out what he'd need for chicken parmesan.
He heard movement in the living room. He peeked his head out, thinking Ben had come back for something, but it wasn't Ben. Hannah was sitting on the couch, and she had the folder that Vil left open in her lap. She was going through the photos, one at a time. John couldn't see them from his angle, but he saw Hannah's eyes soften more than once as she looked at them.
John smiled. Who knows, maybe she will come around, John thought with a little smile as he went back into the kitchen. At least to the point where she can be civil.
Jessie was worse than a mother.
He expected her to be a little protective, but he didn't expect her to virtually take over his life. When Doctor Barnett stopped in that night just for a quick visit, Jessie and Doc had a long talk about exactly what Kit should and should not do, how she needed to work with him because of the injury. And Jessie followed those instructions to the letter.
She was almost a dictator. She kept him on the couch almost all the time, and she talked to Lupe to have him look in on him when she was at school. She did all the work around the house, she carefully made sure that he took all his medicine, antibiotics and mild painkillers in the evening to take the bite off and allow him to sleep comfortably. She controlled every aspect of his day from morning 'til night, most of which was spent on the couch either watching DVDs or surfing the internet on his laptop.
Of course, his chances came when she was at school. She wanted to be with him all the time, but he put his foot down at the very thought that she'd leave school. He was just fine on his own while she was at classes, because the nurse came in around ten to check on him, and Lupe was just across the courtyard, who came and checked on him about every hour. When he had the place to himself, he was working. It was kind of hard to type with one hand, but he could pick up a phone and click a mouse, and Rick didn't mind sending him little projects to work on to help alleviate the boredom.
The apartment sure wasn't empty in the evenings. Several femmes from Jessie's sorority came over almost every night to visit with Jessie, see him, and even help out a little bit. Sandy and Sam were Jessie's best friends, and they were over almost every night. They'd helped her move her things to the apartment, and now they dropped in quite often, which Kit didn't mind at all. He rather liked those two. Some of the crew also dropped in on him almost every night as well, as Rick brought him some material to play with during the day, and they just came over to hang out and help Jessie.
One thing was for sure, Jessie had an easy time of it. She had plenty of paws around willing to help her with almost anything.
And not a day passed where Vil didn't call at least once to check on him, and use the video conference program to see him, check on his progress. He could see that she was still furious in those video conferences, but hadn't yet discovered who had attacked him. She voiced her frustration about a week after Kit returned home. "Whoever it was certainly covered their tracks," she growled, throwing a report file down on the table before her computer, out of his sight. "I even took Atlanta apart, and nothing. This guy didn't take this contract through the mob. It was a personal job."
"What did you do in Atlanta?"
"I think that it's best you don't know," she said with a direct stare that shut him up immediately. "You'd think that I'd find something by now," she said with a dark scowl. "I think I'm going to have to start shaking the family tree. If it becomes clear I'll punish the entire family over the actions of one, someone might balk."
"Be careful," he warned again. "If you push too hard, they're gonna push back."
"Let them," she said flatly.
Despite the whole "nurse nazi" issue, Kit loved having Jessie around all the time. After all the visitors went home, they'd sit on the couch and cuddle, sometimes for hours, as he just let the sound of her purring lull him into a sense of total contentment. She moved into his bed as well, though she kept her paws off of him because of the injury. Doctor Barnett had warned against any kind of intimacy, and she showed a hell of a lot more control than he did. He was willing to bend the rules a little, but she wouldn't hear of it. About all she'd allow him were kisses and an occasional feel of all those things he loved to touch that she kept hidden under her clothes. She seemed to have a line, and wouldn't allow either of them to cross it. It was worst at night, when she was right there in bed with him. He'd reach out and touch her, and she'd allow it, but when he started getting frisky, she shut him down like a misbehaving washing machine.
Of course, her parents weren't too thrilled about it. She hadn't told them she moved in when she told them about the engagement, and her parents found out when they called the sorority. Sandy had let it slip that she'd moved in at Kit's, and Kit was the one that ended up fielding that call, since Jessie was at the store.
"Is it true she's moved in with you?" her father asked directly not two seconds after he answered the phone.
"She didn't give me much choice," he answered, a bit ruefully. "But yes, she did."
"I do not approve of this, Kit," he said. "Not only is it completely improper, it might interfere with her school. That is why she's in Austin, not to chase boys."
"Well, sir, you can try to talk her out of it," he said simply. "Best not try until after the docs take this sling off me, though. She's gone completely Nurse Nightingale on me. Right now, I'm not her fiancée, I'm her patient. Actually, can you talk to her? She's worse than a freakin' nanny."
John actually laughed. "That bad, eh?"
"You have no idea," he said with a short growl. "She got these instructions from the doctor, and she follows them religiously. And if I try to object or if I get restless and want to move around, she puts the worst guilt trip on me you've ever heard. And she teases me," he sighed. "She won't–nevermind. I think that's not something you'd care to talk about."
Much to his surprise, John laughed. "I think I can understand what you're saying," he said. "She's affectionate, but she's not being affectionate."
"God," Kit sighed.
"Have you set a date yet?" he ventured to ask.
"No, it's too early yet, and besides, she won't talk about it. She and Vil have been calling each other and talking for hours every night, so I'm pretty sure they're setting it all up. Will Misses Williams budge?"
"She's budging a little, but no icebreaking yet," he answered. "I think she's getting a double shot of reality to the face, and it'll get worse when I tell her that Jessica is planning her wedding. I think that might push her over the edge. If she misses her first child's wedding, I think she'd kick herself for the next ten years."
"I hope she does. I'd like to have her there."
"But she hates you."
"So? It isn't about me, John, it's about Jessie. Jessie will be happy if her mother is there, and that's that in my mind. I'm more than willing be civil to her for Jessie's sake. And the hate is only one way, I assure you. I don't hate Misses Williams even if she can't stand me. She's just being a mother-in-law."
John laughed. "I would much prefer to see Jessica return to her sorority when you're off doctor's care."
"It was her decision, John," he replied calmly. "And I can't deny her anything she wants. You're welcome to try to talk her back to the sorority, but I'm not sure you'll have much luck. She's taken over my apartment," he chuckled. "I've never had makeup in my medicine cabinet before, and my shower is now cluttered with like ten different bottles. I have weed through them to find my shampoo and soap."
"You'll get used to that. But I would prefer you get used to it after you're married."
Jessie came in through the door with Lupe, who was helping her carry in groceries. "Actually, you can talk to her yourself, she just got home. Hold on." He put his paw over the microphone on his cell. "Jessie, it's your dad."
"Hey Dad," she said after taking the phone. "Yes, I did," she said immediately. "Why? Because for one, he needs me to be here right now because he's on bedrest, and for another we're engaged. No, I don't think so. Dad, we're going to be married. Does it matter if I move in now, or after the wedding? It's not like we're not already–" She blew out her breath. "Well, that's the way it is, Dad. It's not like it's going to be too long after the doctors say he's healed that we get married. No, we haven't yet. Vil wants a little more time to talk about it. She offered to pay for the wedding, you know, and since Mom won't have anything to do with it, I'm the one that's planning it. I don't know yet. I'm too busy taking care of Kit to think much about it."
"I'm not an invalid!" Kit protested, which made Lupe laugh as he went back to the door. "And if you burned out my clutch, femme, we're gonna have words!"
Jessie laughed. "I drove Kit's car to the store, and it's a standard," she giggled into the phone. "I'm not bad, really! It's not that hard." She put her purse on the coffee table. "No, Dad. No. No. Listen, it's not up for discussion. I moved in with Kit because he needs me, and I love him. After he heals, I'm not moving out. This is where I belong. Yes, I know how Mom is going to explode," she sighed, "but I don't care. No, Dad, I haven't forgotten school Kit browbeats me into doing my homework every night. He won't let me forget about school." She put her paw over the phone. "Thanks Lupe, you're a lifesaver," she told the Chihuahua as he brought in another load.
"De nada Jessie," he replied. "We want him back too. I got nobody to play poker with on Sunday nights!"
"No, I'm here, Dad," she said, mouthing the word poker at him, which made Kit just laugh and nod. "The landlord was helping me bring in groceries, that's all. No, you can tell Mom, I don't care. But if she calls here and nags us, I'm gonna turn off the phone. Make sure you tell her that. Okay. I'll think about. Dad, I have to go, I have to put away the groceries and cook, and Doc Barnett should be here in a little bit to check on Kit. I will. I love you too, Dad, bye-bye."
"So, you moving in, Jessie?"
"Yeah, Lupe. Is that a problem?"
"Naw, naw, you'd be moving in when you marry anyway," Lupe grinned. "Ain't nothin' in Kit's lease about not takin' on a roomie."
Surprisingly enough to Kit, Jessie's mom never did call to explode on her. But then again, Kit had the feeling that Hannah was walking on eggshells around Jessie now. She was being pushed out of the wedding, a clear indication to her that her daughter was more than willing to choose him over her, and now that fact was making her seriously reconsider. The times Hannah did call her, she was much less hostile and confrontational, but they did get into some arguments, over him.
As the days passed, some of the restrictions on him were lifted. Doctor Barnett gave him a little more license to move around every day. By his first week back, he was allowed to move about the house freely so long as he got plenty of rest between activity cycles. His wound was healing at a rate that pleased his nurse and Barnett. He spent most of his time doing what work that Rick sent him, and also answering get-well emails sent to him. On Friday, Jeffrey ran the other strip, just a huge drawing of Kit and Jessie kissing with YES! In huge letters across the top, telling everyone that was interested that he and Jessie were engaged. He answered quite a few congratulatory messages after that, and Mike took a picture of the happy couple and put it up on the website for anyone who was curious to see them in the flesh, as it were.
About a two weeks after he came home, Barnett came over and removed the bandages and was quite pleased with the results. "Well, tomorrow the stitches come out, and I think it'll be just fine. It looks like you're healing up just the way you should. Maybe even faster."
"That's because I make him stay on course," Jessie giggled.
"Well, remember, Kit, tomorrow at two at the annex," he said as he put on a new bandage, then helped him back into his sling. "They'll pull your stitches, and I'll come over give you a complete exam and we'll talk about where we go from there."
"Think I can get out of the sling?"
"It'll depend on how well you've healed inside," he answered.
"But I'm having almost no pain now, just a dull ache and itching. I've even stopped taking the pain meds."
"Well, that's a good sign. We'll see tomorrow."
Jessie didn't go to her English Lit class to take him to the hospital, but at least this absence was planned for and excused. She sat with him in the waiting room, and they even allowed her to be there when the nurse and orderly removed the stitches. "I see your fur is growing back," the nurse noted.
"It's kinda prickly," he complained.
"Just let it grow out, and it'll soften up," she said as she carefully removed another stitch.
"How is it looking, nurse?" Jessie asked. "Did he heal well?"
"Well, the cut in his skin is almost healed," she noted. "I doubt that he's in danger of opening it as long as he's careful. I think the doc'll let him go without new stitches."
Barnett filed in wearing a lab coat over slacks and a dress shirt. "Okay then, Kit, now that I have you where I keep all my power tools, let's check out that shoulder, hmm?"
Barnett's examination took over an hour, where Barnett thoroughly examined his shoulder, then had him to quite a few movements and exercises to test his arm and how much pain he felt when moving it. He sent Kit over to the hospital for another CAT scan, and they waited in an exam room there for Barnett to come back. When he did, he was carrying some papers. "Alright, you want the good news or the bad news?"
"Uh, both?" Kit asked.
Barnett chuckled, scratching at his muzzle. "The good news is that you're healing along quite nicely. I'm not going to replace your stitches."
"That's good news, alright," Kit said. "What about the sling?"
"That's the bad news, I'm afraid," he chuckled. "But, there's some not-so-bad news that goes along with it. I want you to keep your arm in a sling for one more week, Kit, but we'll forego the straight jacket. I know it doesn't hurt that much, but the bullet did go through most of the muscles that deal with moving your shoulder, so I'd like to give them just a little more time to heal before you start putting stress on it. But, you're no longer on restriction," he announced. "I'll give you a standard sling, and you're free to go back to work and engage in light activity. But don't push it," he warned.
"How light?" Kit asked, glancing at Jessie.
Barnett laughed. "Oh, I think as long as you're stationary," he said with a toothy grin.
Jessie's entire face frizzed out.
They left with a new prescription for an antibiotic to guard against infection, and a new normal sling. It felt so good to at least be able to move his arm a little bit, not feeling like his left side was tied down. "I can't believe you asked him that!" Jessie said as they walked to his Pathfinder.
"Well, at least now we have permission," he said enticingly in her ear, sliding his paw up her side.
She shivered a little. "We'll talk about this when we get home," she said sternly.
"I hope so."
They stopped at the office first. Kit and Jessie visited, and he told Rick that he could come back to work. "I still can't type 'til they take me out of this sling, but I'm dying at home, Rick," he complained. "I need to come back to work."
"No problem, you can work with me and Savid until you're back to full strength," Rick told him. "Since we're off tomorrow, why don't you just come in on Monday. That alright?"
"Hell yeah," Kit chuckled. "I'd rather come in tomorrow, but I wouldn't mind a weekend with Jess."
"No pressure, though, son," Rick told him. "If you feel tired or want to go home, just lemme know."
"I'll keep that in mind, boss," Kit nodded.
They went home after that. "I'm gonna need to borrow your car, my pretty kitty," he told her as they filed into the apartment. "I can't drive mine like this."
"That's okay, my handsome fox," she told him. "What do you want for dinner?"
"I know what I want for dinner," he said huskily, draping an arm over her.
She giggled. "I'm still mad at you for asking that."
"Well, we got permission," he breathed, grabbing her belt buckle.
"I dunno, my fox, I'm afraid I might hurt you."
"You can tie me to the bed," he offered.
"Don't make promises you can't keep, my fox," she giggled, then she shivered when he pulled on her belt buckle, cinching her belt around her. "Alright, I think we can try," she said thickly, reaching up and putting her paw on the side of his head as he nuzzled her cheek from behind. "But if I hurt you, it's your fault."
"I can live with that," he said, pulling her towards the bedroom.
"Wait, I forgot to lock the door!" she said, pulling away. He waited when she went and locked it, then sauntered back to him. "Now, let's talk about this," she said in a purring voice, holding his paw and giving him a smile.
"It's your fault," he complained. "Letting me touch you, then not letting me go any further."
She laughed. "I couldn't help it. I love it when you touch me, my handsome fox," she said with a bright smile, pulling him back to the bedroom. "It makes me feel wanted."
"Well, mission accomplished, because I so want you right now."
She laughed and pulled him into the bedroom, then she closed the door.
Making love while injured introduced some complications to the process, but Kit had no complaints.
She lay with him in bed, with the afternoon sun making the curtains glow, and she was purring in contentment. His left arm was carefully draped over his stomach, but his right arm held her close. She was exquisitely careful, but he did have a little pain… which he'd never admit to.
"Mmm," she hummed, her purring ceasing as she spoke.
"How do you do that?" he asked.
"Do what?"
"Purr when you kiss me, when you can't purr when you talk."
She giggled. "I breathe when you kiss me," she said, snuggling up to him. "Because I know you love it when I purr."
"It's like kissing a vibrator," he said, which made her gasp in surprise. "But that's a good thing," he told her, keeping her from rising up to glare at him. "It goes right through me and makes me knees melt."
She laughed. "Well, now I know how to stop any argument immediately."
"I doubt you'll be purring when we're fighting."
"My handsome fox, I can purr on demand," she said with a giggle, her paw carefully and delicately tracing through the area where his bandages were, in the area of shaved fur. "Sure, I purr when I'm happy, but I've learned how to fake it," she giggled.
"Oh, there goes my self esteem," he said darkly, which made her laugh.
"No, it's not that I want to fake it," she told him. "It's just that when I was a little girl, I couldn't purr. I didn't really understand why, so I tried to learn how to do it."
"Why couldn't you?"
"I really don't know," she said. "Mom always told me I was being silly when I worried about it, but all my cat friends could do it. I guess that was the first time I ever really felt like my mixed breed ancestry was a bad thing. For years, I thought that I couldn't purr because my grandfather's a fox."
"Well, obviously it worked out."
"Yeah. I guess I just had to grow up a little more before I could purr, that's all. My cat friends could do it when they were six or seven. I couldn't purr until I was almost twelve. But, all my trying to do it on purpose kinda taught me how to do it when I could," she chuckled. "My mom thinks it's amazing that I can force myself to purr. She doesn't know any cat that can."
"Maybe it's a good part of being mixed."
"Mom can't do it."
"I think your mother only purrs when she's burning me in effigy."
Jessie laughed.
"Did you ever have trouble being mixed?"
"Nah," she replied. "I went to public school, and there's lots of mixed breeds in city schools. Besides, I don't look like a mixed breed. I can pass as a purebred cat easily. Now if I'd have been born somewhere in the rural south, I guess it'd be a problem. Why, is it an issue in Boston?"
"Not really, but they're not very common," he answered. "It used to be bad, though. Boston used to be the headquarters of the Purity League."
"Oh, them," Jessie sighed.
"My family were charter members," he admitted with a dark grunt. "A lot of Vulpan money funded their lobbying. But then Massachusetts changed the law and redefined them as a hate group, and they were booted. Thank God."
"I'm lucky that way, I guess. All of Mom's kids are. None of us have any fox traits but me, and all I got was the coloration. But that's nothing definitive, ya know?"
"Yeah, there have to be plenty of cats running around with black mittens, black ears, and a black tail tip."
"Well, some have mentioned that they do look kinda fox-like, but nobody's ever asked me if I'm mixed," she told him. "I can imagine you had almost as much trouble as if you were mixed."
"My eyes? Only in Boston," he answered. "It's the Vulpan family trait, so it kinda identified me. Most of the time it was useful, but there were quite a few times when furs wanted to beat me up because I was a Vulpan."
"I can imagine."
The phone rang. Jessie had put it on the nightstand, so she reached across him and grabbed it. "Oh, nuts," she breathed, opening the phone. "Hello? Hey Mom."
Kit laughed.
"No, this is not a good time to talk. I'm busy. No. No–Mom, you don't want to know. Mom–Mom. Mom! Fine. I'm in bed with Kit," she said in a hostile voice. "Yes, you heard me! In bed! Naked! And we just finished having sex," she said heatedly. "There, are you happy now? At least now you know!"
And she hung up the phone.
Kit laughed delightedly. "You're getting mean, my pretty kitty."
"She wouldn't stop asking what I was doing, so I told her," she said with a huff, turning the phone off and putting it back on the nightstand. She snuggled back down with him, sighed in contentment, and began to purr.
"Oh, sure, now you purr," he snorted. "Now I'll always wonder if you really mean it, or you're faking."
She laughed, then slid up and kissed him on the nose with a cherubic grin. "I promise I'll only fake it when you ask me to," she winked. "But so far, every purr you've heard out of me was genuine. Fiancée's honor." She held up her right paw.
He laughed. "There's no such thing."
"What are you saying? I have my honor."
"Not when we slept together," he grinned. "You're honorless."
"Well, that's your fault now, isn't it?" she retorted primly.
He laughed and put his good arm around her, pulling her against him. "God, I love you, you silly kitty."
"Mmm, say that again," she purred, nuzzling his neck and cheek with her own cheek.
He thought that her kissing him when she was purring was bad enough, but her nuzzling him like that put her throat in direct contact with his neck, and he could feel it vibrating against him. "God, you know how to drive me crazy," he groaned, twining his fingers through her hair. "You give an entirely new definition for the term necking."
She laughed against his ear. "This is how naughty kitties do it," she whispered in his ear.
"I love naughty kitties," he sighed, surrendering to her attentions.
The new sling wasn't half as bad as the straight jacket, and it was wonderful to be able to go out again.
They spent almost all day Saturday out, from walking in McKenzie park to going to see a movie, then a nice dinner that Jessie didn't have to cook. When they went home, they spent a wonderful evening just sitting on the couch, cuddling… at least until her mother called.
Hannah wasn't too happy about her little stunt from the day before, and it touched off a bit of a heated exchange between them. But then Jessie laughed and cuddled in with him a little more. "Well, Mom, I'm trying," she said. "Wow… what is that I just heard? Without a single scream?" She laughed. "Okay, okay, thank you for at least trying. I appreciate it. We haven't really talked about it yet. Vil said she'd pay for it, but Kit doesn't really like it when she pays for things for him."
"Oh my God, you're talking about the wedding? And she isn't going nuclear?" Kit asked.
Jessie gave him a cool look, and swatted him on the leg. "I guess you'd have to talk to her about that. I can have her call you. You do? How did you get it? She what? Oh my goodness! Kit, Vil went to see my folks!" she declared.
"Huh? She never told me she did that."
"When did she come see you? When? Hmm, that's when she left here, after Kit got out of the hospital," she said, mainly for his benefit. "Well, what did you think of her?" Jessie listened to the response, then laughed. "Yeah, she's like that, but I really like her. She's a wonderful vixen. She bought me a car," she all but purred. "Uh, Mom, since you're not going crazy, I wanted to tell you something." She gave a startled look, then laughed. "No, Mom, I'm not pregnant," she laughed. "I'd love to be, though," she added impulsively. "Anyway, I invited Kit to come to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving. Would that be alright? I want him to meet you and Ben and Jenny." She giggled. "No, Mom, I'll have Dad hide all the guns and knives before he gets there. Now, why did you call?" She laughed. "Mom, you always have a reason to call anymore, usually when you feel like arguing."
Jessie sat up a little. "Mom! I don't feel like arguing now. Well, you do! When's the last time we talked that didn't turn into an argument!" Her cheeks ruffled appealingly. "Umm, well, I was… busy. And you wouldn't stop asking! No, Mom, I wasn't just saying that. We really were in bed. Well, he'd just gotten back from the doctor, and we couldn't–uh, well, he'd just gotten taken off restriction. Well, you go two weeks and see how you feel!" She gasped. "Oh my God, I'm sitting here talking about sex with my mother," she realized.
Kit laughed when Jessie's entire face poofed out. "Mom? Mom! Mom, I'm–" she stopped, then she laughed. "No, I'm not trying to ruin it on purpose, but you asked! No, no, that's fine. It'll be nice to hang up the phone without us hanging up on each other for once. Okay. I love you too, Mom. Bye." She closed the phone, and gave out a little squeal and hugged Kit. "I don't believe it!"
"She's not ordering voodoo dolls of me anymore?"
She laughed. "Well, not quite, but she did say she'd come to the wedding. Under protest of course, but she said she'd be there. For Mom, that's a huge step." She snuggled down against him, laying her gorgeous tail over his lap. "She said you're welcome to come to Thanksgiving."
"Should I bring the number for the Poison Control Center?"
She giggled. "Putting it on speed-dial may not be a bad idea. Mom might just be playing nice to get close enough to you."
"Your mom is something else," he chuckled.
"Well, she's just protective."
"Kinda like you," he teased, poking her in the shoulder.
"Now you know where I get it from," she giggled.
"I wonder what got her like that."
"I know what got her like that," she sighed, a little sadly.
"Oh? Feel like telling me?"
"Only if you can promise to keep a secret."
"For you, pretty kitty? You have my word."
"My mom was one of the Columbus Twenty."
Kit gasped. "Hannah? Hannah Cremeans? That's your mother?"
"Yeah. When she married and her name changed, she kinda faded into the background. I'm surprised you knew her name."
"Pretty kitty, I have a Bachelor's in history."
"But your focus is ancient history."
"That doesn't mean I don't know my modern history."
"Well, my mom had two brothers."
"Say no more, pretty kitty," he sighed. "I know about it."
"I guess she doesn't want to lose anyone else, so she's majorly protective," she reasoned. "Grandma more or less picked out my dad for her, which worked out since my dad was in love with my mom. So, now Mom thinks she needs to pick husbands for me and Jenny. Add those two together, and you see why me and Jenny left home to go to school."
"Why didn't you ever tell me?"
"Because my mom hates it," she answered. "Because of what happened to my brothers. She doesn't like to talk about it. And you can't ask her about it, Kit. It just makes her sad, and she'll hate you even more."
"Wow," he breathed. The Columbus Twenty, twenty mixed breed high schoolers that integrated the Columbus East High School after the Mixed Breed Civil Rights laws were passed in 1971, which completely ended all forms of breed segregation. Even though mixed breeds were supposedly covered in the civil rights laws of the 60s, the purist movement kept finding ways to exploit the loopholes in the laws to continue to discriminate against mixed breeds. The Columbus Twenty were like the African breed children in the south, the first kids to go to school under the new laws.
Oh yes, that was a dark day in the Vulpan household, he was told.
If Jessie's mom was Hannah Cremeans, then he knew her story. Her younger brothers, William and Jebediah Cremeans, were both killed by a purist mob in October of 1972, the last known furs to have been lynched. Six of the killers were convicted, and they were still in prison to this day.
Damn, no wonder she wanted to forget. Her brothers were killed because they were mixed breed, and they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But that was also an event that changed public opinions and spelled the death of the purist movement and purist organizations. Those two boys were literally killed on camera, and it caused massive outrage. Kit was surprised that Hannah had managed to vanish from the public eye like that, since she was famous after a fashion. But then again, that was a kind of fame that one would never want.
"I understand, pretty kitty," he said, hugging her tightly. "Did she ever talk about it with you?"
"No. She never talks about it. I learned about it from Dad."
"Well, that does explain a little about why she may hate me," he sighed. "The Vulpans were never very shy about their sympathies."
"No, I don't think she even knew who your family was until after I met you. And her hatred of you started way before she knew who you were. Besides, think about it. I'm a mixed breed, my handsome fox. That you're marrying me might make her feel different. You're no purist," she giggled.
"Well, I'll have to keep that in mind next time I'm about to be pissed at her. That was one rough road to travel."
"Maybe now you know why I put up with it for so long. In a way, I kinda understand the way she feels."
"Yeah, I can understand that."
Learning the truth about Jessie's family had actually changed Kit's opinion of her mother quite a bit.
He thought about it most of Sunday, as he was more or less browbeat to sitting on the couch as she settled into his house–their house–a bit more, making it more of a home for herself. She went out that morning and bought new curtains to replace the ratty old ones donated by her sorority house, and occupied herself with much of the morning and early afternoon with putting them up. Kit helped as much as she'd allow, but he spent much of his time pondering what he'd learned about Hannah Williams.
In a way, she felt kind of like a kindred spirit. She too had faced tremendous hardship in her life, from a different source but with a similar effect, but she'd suffered much more loss than Kit. Kit had never lost anything but his love for his family and material things he could replace. Hannah had lost her brothers, and had been punished, degraded, and humiliated for something beyond her control. And she'd managed to come through it, raise three children, and find a husband who loved her and build a good life for herself. Sure, she was a little extreme, but now that he knew what he knew, he could rationalize her ultra-protective nature. He could understand it. Hannah had lost much in her life, and she wanted to hold on to what she had, a compulsion so powerful that it drove her almost to the point of driving her daughters away from her. But there was also a tremendous acceptance there. Since Hannah never talked about her past, she was keeping her own experiences out of her children's lives, allowing them to grow up without any of her own bad experiences tainting their outlooks. She'd raised them like any normal mother, albeit a protective one, allowing them to be normal kids, giving them the childhood she'd been denied. That she could separate her own bad experiences out of her parenting told much of Hannah's wisdom and strength, and at least in Jessie's case, she raised an intelligent, well-adjusted young femme that, while maybe a little naïve, was just as normal as any other twenty-one year old. And that was an accomplishment.
It was too bad she hated him. He'd love to talk to her, and learn her story.
But he wouldn't do that even if she didn't hate him. Jessie said that her mother never talked about that, never talked about her history, and he'd respect that. It had to be painful, and he knew from experience that there were some parts of his own past that he'd love to never think about again, never have to remember. But he could respect her without ever asking about it.
Monday, he finally got to go back to work. Since he couldn't really type very fast and that hindered him in his usual duties, he instead worked with Rick and Savid, and started learning the business of magazine editing. They started training him in how the editing program worked, kind of like a glorified Powerpoint, and he started getting the hang of it. Mike, not wanting to be outdone, hijacked him for a couple of hours after lunch to show him how a website really worked, teaching him the very basics of HTML and actually relating it in ways to the editing program that made sense to him. Mike also couldn't resist showing off all the pictures of him in the hospital he'd put on the website's photo gallery, as well as Jessie's proposal and the reply on their own special webpage. "That's part of magazine history now," Mike grinned. "The magazine's very first marriage proposal."
"Mike, the magazine's only been in print for two years," Kit protested.
"So? It's still a red-letter day."
Driving Jessie's car was a lot different from his. He'd gotten used to being high up, and driving the Corolla was like riding a motorized sled. But her car was an automatic, and since he only had one arm–at least officially, since he could move his arm quite well now without pain–it was really his only option. He got home and found Jessie not there, so he surreptitiously took off the sling and exercised his arm slowly and carefully. It burned a little when he moved it too far, which he only did carefully for fear of tearing something in there, and there was still a little nagging ache and a lot of itching, but he had a fairly decent range of motion without any pain at all. With luck, he'd be fully healed in just a week or two. As long as he didn't raise his arm over his shoulder or reach too far to the right side or too far behind him, it was more than tolerable.
Jessie came in carrying some Wal-Mart bags, and she gave him an immediate hostile look. "What are you doing!" she demanded.
"The doc told me to exercise my arm out of the sling, remember?" he said mildly, putting his right paw on his shoulder and very tentatively working his left arm back and forth. "He said five minutes a day once I didn't feel any jabs when I took it out of the sling."
"Oh. So he did. How does it feel?"
"Like I'll be back to playing football soon," he smiled, then he patted her backside as she went back. "Or the good kind of wrestling."
She laughed, swatting him with her tail. "I think you're already up to that point," she said with a naughty smile at him. She opened a bag from Circuit City, and showed him a small box. "I hope you don't mind, but I went out and bought something for us."
"What is it?"
"It's a camera," she answered. "You know, we don't have one, and I'd like some more pictures than what Mike takes."
"Oh, how much was it?"
"Four hundred dollars," she said, her cheeks ruffling slightly. "I know it's a little expensive, but Lilly recommended it. It's just like hers. She said it takes great pictures, it can even take video, and it's really tough. She's dropped hers bunches of times and it still works fine."
"Well, I don't mind if it's what you want," he told her.
"I know, I'm sorry," she said, looking down demurely. "But we don't have any pictures, and I want a camera."
"Don't apologize to me, my pretty kitty," he chuckled. "We've managed Vil's gift very well, and since Rick kept paying me even when I was in the hospital, we had the money to spare. And she won't mind at all that you used the excess to buy something you think we need."
"I was going to ask you to save it to help me buy me a new laptop, but I can just keep using yours, if you don't mind."
"It's yours for the taking, love," he assured her. "I don't use it at work. We might fight over it a little at home, but I'm sure we can work it out," he chuckled.
"I know I'm sounding like I'm just taking over all your money," she said with sudden shyness.
He laughed. "Jess, it's not my money, it's our money. You even have an ATM card for my bank account. You don't have to ask for permission, silly kitty! As long as you warn me so I don't go thinking I have more money in the bank than I do, you're more than welcome to it. I trust you, love. You're a sensible cat who won't go crazy with our money."
She laughed sheepishly. "Well, I've had a few impulses, but I knew it would be a bad idea."
"And that's why I trust you," he smiled, putting his arm back in the sling. "So, let's get that camera set up."
After installing the software on the laptop, they played with it a little bit. Jessie took pictures of the apartment and of Kit, and he took a few of her, then they downloaded a few of them to the laptop. Jessie mailed some of them to Sam and Sandy, and mailed quite a few of them to her father's university email account, mostly the ones of the apartment.
Kit had noticed before that Jessie was very good at taking pictures, and the pictures she took were actually very well done. Jessie had an eye for it, just like Lilly. Lilly had taught Jessie how to use her camera, and obviously taught her a little about photography, so Jessie had went out and bought the exact same kind of camera so she was working with something with which she was familiar. Kit watched as she mailed the photos off, sitting at the dining room table, with him leaning over her shoulder.
"You know, we need one more thing," Kit noted.
"What?"
"A video camera. One with a stand, we can set up in the bedroom," he said huskily, putting his paw around her slender waist.
"You," she laughed, elbowing him gently. But her breath caught in her throat and she immediately began to purr when he started nuzzling her. "Do you think it would be too much to ask for a laptop, love?"
He chuckled against her neck. "How much money do we have in the bank?"
"I don't know exactly, maybe a little over a thousand," she answered.
"We'll go shopping for them next weekend. And I'll look at video cameras," he added kissing her neck. "We'll give Mike something good to put on the magazine website."
She laughed, reaching up and putting her paw against his head.
Kit's idea of shopping for laptops actually never got off the ground. When Vil called that evening to talk about the wedding, he asked her where she bought his. "Why, did yours break?"
"No, Jessie doesn't have one, and I was going to shop for one for her."
"She doesn't have a laptop?"
"She broke hers about a week before she met me."
"Well hell, I never knew," she said in obvious surprise. "You couldn't afford the laptop I gave you, little bro. I'll send her one."
"But–"
"Let's not get into that argument again, brother," she cut him off. "Jessie needs a laptop, and I'm not going to let you buy her one out of some discount store."
"You know I hate it when you do that."
"And I know you can't say no when I give things to Jessie," she returned, rather smugly. "She needs a laptop for school, and so she'll get one. A real one, not a junkbox special out of a blue-light sale."
"You just make me feel so able to provide for my future wife," he said darkly into the phone, which made her laugh.
"It'll be there tomorrow morning. You working?"
"Yeah."
"I'll have it overnighted to your office. Now put her on the phone."
He snorted. "Jessie! My evil bitch of a sister is on the phone!"
Jessie laughed as she came out of the bathroom. "Are you being mean to your brother again, Vil?" she giggled when she took the phone from him. "Really? Aww, Vil, you don't have to do that for me! We can afford a laptop." She laughed. "Yeah, well, Kit's is nice. Aww, you're so sweet. Thank you!"
Kit stalked away, grumbling under his breath.
He kept thinking about Hannah, kept wondering at the story that she might have to tell, but more worried about her hatred of him poisoning her relationship with her daughter.
He thought about it sitting at work, as he got to design his very first magazine page for the week after next's issue. While he was sitting there juggling article text, ads, and pictures within the magazine's style template, he thought about it. He needed to bridge the gap with Hannah, offer an olive branch now that it seemed that she was starting to come around, at least as far as the wedding was concerned. He shifted a column of text into its spot, nestled in around a picture of a new nightclub that was opening next month.
Text.
It was such a simple, elegant idea! The art of writing a letter was a dead art nowadays, but hopefully someone of Hannah's age might appreciate it.
He finished up the page he was working on, saved it, then wandered back to his office. He sat down at his computer, took his arm out of its sling, and then started up the word processing program.
And he wrote.
His first paragraph summed up the entire letter quite nicely:
Dear Mrs. Williams:
I'm sure that you're a little surprised to receive this, and please pardon the fact that it's not hand-written and was sent via e-mail. But I felt it was necessary to write this. You and I haven't exactly been on friendly terms. I know that there's little I can do to persuade you against your position on me, but I felt that it was necessary for you to understand how I feel about Jessie. So, this letter is for you, but it's about your daughter. I can only hope I can express how much I love her and keep it under the size of a novel.
He wrote simply and from the heart. He told Hannah about how he met her, and how she had captivated him, almost from the beginning. He pulled no punches about himself. He was a homeless dishwasher when he met her, and he admitted as much. He went on to talk about her, how he felt about her, the little things about her that he loved, from her black mittens to the maddeningly adorable way she blushed, to her amazing sense of humor, to her wonderfully caring and compassionate personality. He described her to Hannah through his eyes in honest terms, putting in words what he felt inside, but feeling and admitting in the letter that his words just couldn't do it justice.
And on he wrote, as his left shoulder began to ache from the effort. Members of the crew came to his door and saw him almost totally engrossed in what he was doing, and didn't bother him, not even Rick. Page after page, honest, sincere emotions, observations, hopes, dreams, and plans. He told her about how he hoped the wedding would go, but he was keeping himself politely out of it because it was Jessie's wedding and it was to make her happy. He told her about the children they hoped to have, he told her about the plans he had for the future. His plans completely revolved around Jessie, as he prepared to support her, nurture her, care for her, and spend the rest of his life making her happy.
And he told her about his family. Again, he pulled no punches. He told her about his history, about the history of his family, and about the split that had caused him to leave the family and spurn their views and their money.
How can I explain it, Hannah? I guess I can't. By all rights, I should have grown up just like my father, just like my family. But I didn't. I never felt the way they did. I couldn't understand why they hated so much. I heard all of their propaganda, and I guess I believed it out of blind faith, until I rebelled against my father, and I got to see first hand for myself out on the streets. Do you know that I'd never even seen a mixed breed in real life until I was fourteen? I didn't quite know how to react. I remembered what my family had said about them, but when he talked to me, I just couldn't fathom what on earth they were complaining about. He was kind. He was concerned about me because I was wandering the streets alone after dark, and I was obviously just a kid. When he coaxed the fact that I'd run away out of me, he didn't march me straight home. He took me to a Burger King and sat down and talked to me, something my father had never done. He was warm and friendly, and that night sitting in that Burger King, sharing a box of fries while he let me voice all my pent-up frustrations and anger about my family, was one of the turning points of my life. I guess some children have their illusions shattered by harsh reality. Mine were shattered by a talkative, kind male named Rudy, who was half raccoon, half dog.
I never really told them about how I felt, because I knew that not just my father would come down on me. The Vulpan family is tight-knit around the controlling family, which was mine, because they held the reins of power and the keys to the bank. I was doted on as a kid because I was the heir apparent, but inside all I could do was scream. It wasn't what I wanted to do. I would have been a terrible businessmale. After meeting Rudy, I knew that if I didn't try to find my own happiness in life, I would have wasted the gift God gave me.
I guess I should thank Rudy and my father, and my family. Their actions brought me to Austin, and it was here that I found that happiness.
And the money? I'm sure you might wonder about that. I saw what it did to my father, Hannah. I saw it consume him until money was all he cared about, even over his own children. I saw what money had done to my uncles, and my cousins. Money can make some people happy, but when you have too much of it, it destroys your life. It's a curse, Hannah, a curse that destroys, no matter how much it can be used to build. I was rich, once. But I'm far richer now that I ever was when I had money, because now my life is nearly complete. And when we have our first child, then I'll know what it's like to be truly blessed.
And he wrote on. Friends came and went, but when they called him, he didn't answer. His left arm went beyond pain and settled into an angry numbness, a kind of dull buzzing. He just wrote, and wrote, divulging heartfelt desires, admitting to fears, anything he thought that would help Hannah understand him so she would understand just how much he loved her daughter.
He blinked when the phone rang. He picked it up, then grunted in pain when he carefully rotated his left arm as he opened it. "Hello?"
"Kit? Where are you?" It was Jessie.
He looked at the clock on his computer, and saw that it was nearly 8:00pm. He'd been sitting there three hours after quitting time, working on the letter. "Oh, I'm still at work. I've been working on something that I couldn't quit."
"Come home," she told him. "The doctor said light activity, not overtime!"
"I've been taking it easy, love," he assured her as he started the last paragraph:
Well, Hannah, I'm afraid I'm going to have to end it here, though I feel I've completely failed to try to explain how I feel. I just haven't done it justice. But, your daughter just called me and is nagging at me to come home. I'm still in the office, some three hours after I should have been home, and she's still in nurse mode. Until the doc gives me a clean bill of health, she's going to be my terror of a pretty kitty. I can only hope that you read this letter and at least understand how much I love Jessie, and can only beg for your blessing to be her husband and the father of your grandchildren.
Sincerely,
Kit
He saved the letter, then opened up the email program. "Hon, what's your email address at home?" he asked. "Something I can send to your family at home, rather than your father's office?"
"Umm, try skeetfan at armstrong dot com. That's my dad's home email."
"So, your mother would get an email if I sent it there?"
"Mom? You're sending email to Mom?"
"She's put out a cease fire offer, pretty kitty. I'm going to try to get a peace treaty."
Jessie laughed. "Yeah, just put it in the subject line it's for Mom, and Dad'll have her come read it."
"Well, it's going to be a file and a message, in case she doesn't want to try to read it that way." He copied the entire text of the file into his email client, attached the document that made up the letter, and then sent it on its way. "Alright, pretty kitty, I'm on the way home."
"I'll call home and tell her you sent her something."
"If you do that, she'll get your number."
"Well, I guess I should. Like you said, she's showing signs of asking for a peace treaty, so I guess a little show of faith on my part would help a little."
"Okay."
"What did you send her?"
"A letter," he answered, putting his left arm back in the sling after closing everything out and turning off the monitor. Mike didn't like them shutting down their computers, he was one of those who believed that letting them run was better for them in the long run than turning them off and on. "A letter explaining how I feel."
"It took you three hours to write it?"
"I've been writing it since after lunch," he answered. "I hope she has some time. It's over twenty pages."
"Woah."
"I don't think I did a very good job. It's hard to put I love you in words that don't do it justice."
"Aww, you're so sweet, my handsome fox."
"Thanks, my pretty kitty."
"Come home, baby. I'll cook you something to eat."
"I am a little hungry. Gotta hang up now, hon, I need the only paw I've got to set the alarm and lock the door. See you in fifteen."
"Before you go, what do you want for dinner?"
"Anything handy."
"How does hamburgers sound?"
He laughed. "Since when do I say no to hamburgers?"