by Mel Todd
"I’ve got my partner, work partner," she clarified the arched brow. "He doesn’t live too far away, then there is Toni, and her kids who also love Charley. So yeah, I have some support."
"Good. Then I’ve got paperwork for you to sign and you have some furniture shopping to do."
Fifteen minutes later, with information on how to get him registered at school, her signature on almost as many places as for the mortgage, Roy left. McKenna turned to a boy who kept wavering between a smile and a wary look.
"What’s wrong?"
He shrugged looking at the ground then back up at her. "I’m waiting for you to change your mind. For this to all go wrong."
The uncertainty in his voice, and the images she’d seen in his dreams ripped at her. McKenna knelt and looked at him. "Charley, listen to me. I can’t promise to always be here. You know my job is dangerous. I can’t promise I’m going to do the right thing every time. But I can promise you this. I am never going to leave you behind. If anything happens to me, know that I am doing everything in my power to get back to you. You are mine and I’m yours."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
His hug took her off guard, and she fell backwards laughing as she wrapped her arms around him and held him close. "Alien’s couldn’t make me not come back for you. Promise."
Charley giggled at that, sounding like a boy instead of a young man.
"So ready to go shopping?"
"Yes. Can JD come?"
"Would you like him to?"
Charley nodded and McKenna tapped the link in her mind.
~Wanna go shopping? I got a kid to buy things for.~
~Sure, you going to spend some of your reward money?~
McKenna looked down at Charley, a frown creasing her brows.
~Reward money? What reward money?~
There was a moment of silence, then the sound of JD laughing in her head, a very odd feeling.
~That’s right, you don’t know what Perc did. Oh, you are going to be very very happy. I’ll be over in a few minutes.~
"Yep, he’s coming, and he’s got some explaining to do."
Chapter 10 - Talk About It
Need to let your inner animal out? A new safari is gaining popularity in Africa. Set up specifically for shifters, they allow you to hunt antelope, gazelle, and other animals in a defined area. Already they have a wait list for the next year. Currently, the YouTube videos of the failure rate of the humans in animal form is top rated. It is obvious that the ability to shift into a cat or wolf, doesn’t mean you have any idea how to hunt as a cat or wolf. ~ TNN Entertainment news.
The next morning McKenna threw three frozen chimichangas into the microwave as the coffee brewed. She still needed to process what JD had told her about the football player who’d rescued himself and put up the reward money with the caveat that if she rescued herself she’d get the money.
"You’ll like him. Maybe we can invite him over? I think you two would hit it off." JD had told her.
"As long as you aren’t trying to set me up. Sure."
JD had laughed at that and promised not to. They’d gone shopping for Charley and food, she’d worry about the reward money later.
Today though counseling and dealing with school stuff.
"Charley, come on. We need to get going."
She’d slept without him last night, and dreams didn’t invade her mind, so she figured he’d slept better. At her yell she heard him in the bathroom as the microwave dinged and coffee finished. Throwing in a few more for him she filled a travel mug and let hers cool. She’d eat while she drove.
Charley came out dressed in his new jeans and shirt and smiled up at her. "What were we doing again?"
"Well, I have to talk to a counselor, and I’d like to see if she would talk to you too."
He wrinkled his nose. "Why? Usually the shrinks just make me talk about my feelings and stuff, but they don’t actually listen to me."
McKenna snorted. "Yeah. But this woman is pretty nice. She’s a shifter too, so you might be surprised. If she says yes, just try it? I know I’m having issues with what happened, so if you tell me you aren’t having any issues at all…" she trailed off looking at him.
"Then I’m probably lying." He shrugged. "I can always just not say anything."
"Yep, that is always an option."
He shrugged, more focused on the hot food coming out of the microwave. She grabbed a bottle of water and some juice for him and they headed out.
McKenna had requested the early meeting, but already she missed work and hoped they’d get her back working by next Monday. She needed something to do to not think about the alien in her head and the ramifications of that. She didn’t want to deal with it, not yet, not ever if she could avoid it.
Charley’s eyes were wide as he followed her into the station, head swiveling back and forth trying to take everything in. A few people said “Hi," but she just waved and headed deeper in, stopping by Anne’s tiny office when she reached it.
"Hey, checking in. Need anything?"
Anne looked up and flashed her a smile. "Largo. Hey, Charley. How you doing? She treating you right? Or you ready to kick her to the curb and find someone better?"
Charley ducked his head a bit. "Nah, is good."
"Uh huh. Want a tour of the station while McKenna here has her meeting?"
"Yes!" then he paused and looked at McKenna. "Is that okay?"
"I don’t know. You sure she isn’t going to lock you up or feed you to the dogs?"
Charley rolled his eyes. "Please, I’m a wolf. The dogs would never hurt me. And they don’t lock up little kids." The amount of disgust in his voice had both McKenna and Anne laughing.
"I concede. Go have fun, but can you bring him back in about an hour?" She directed the question to Anne.
"Sure. Come on, kiddo. Let's go meet boring people."
McKenna smiled as Charley and Anne headed off, and she headed over to the conference room they’d agreed to meet in.
Julia Conner sat at the table directly in the middle of one side. The only windows looked out into the hall, so there wasn’t a view of any sort and the hall windows had the blinds pulled.
"Should I assume anything from where you are sitting?"
Julia didn’t even look up writing on a note pad. "Nope. Just that there aren’t any good places to sit. We really need to find a better place to meet."
"Yeah, about that. What do you think about taking on a kid?"
Julia looked up at her, her writing pausing. "Kid, what kid?"
"Um, my kid?"
"No offense, but I’m pretty damn sure, even given everything you’ve been through in the last month, you haven’t gotten pregnant, given birth, and had a child age enough that I would be affected." She paused, eyes widening. "Please, for the love of animals, don’t tell me that is a side effect of shifting, that you go through pregnancy and childhood in days."
McKenna choked on laughter and flopped down on the chair on the other side of the therapist.
"No, at least I don’t think so, but no." Even as she said that she pinged Wefor.
~That answer is no, right?~
[Mostly correct. While gestation will not increase if you remained in animal form for extended periods of time you might age at the animals' rate, the same could apply to gestation, but I have no records regarding that.]
~Huh.~
Julia sighed, "So then, your kid?"
"You know about my drama, yes?"
"Your larger than life story that makes me feel like a boring mouse? Yes."
"You can have it really; can I trade you?"
"Not interested, I’d much rather live vicariously thank you very much. Now, child?"
McKenna explained about Charley and fostering him. "Though if we have our way that will be as permanent as an adoption. But his home life sucked, then you add in all the stuff we went through, then killing people and him helping. Would you be willing to talk to him?"
"What was the
comment about a better place to meet?"
"Well, my friend Toni, her kids were with me. And while I think they are a lot more stable than Charley is, better family life, I think they need someone to talk to too, and hell, probably so does Toni with what she went through having her kids taken."
Julia scrubbed at her face with her hands. "I’m not particularly religious, but even I can see when all the signs are pointing this way. I’m going to move my practice up here and re-arrange to have one day a week in San Fran. I think I’m creating a shifter-centric practice. What the hell, I’ll probably get a book out of it. Aspects of Shifter Clients, or something like that."
"Really?"
"You just gave me four clients; the other kids and parent’s probably need them. Health insurance and the foster system will pay for most of this, so yeah. I’ll work it out with them to cover the costs. I’ll probably come out ahead. Living up here is going to be a hell of a lot cheaper than living in San Fran. Besides, this is at least going to be different and interesting."
McKenna grinned. "Great. Let me know when you have your office here and I’ll send Toni your info."
"Yep. So, talk to me. What do we need to talk about?"
I’m still not talking about the warrior form or Wefor, but the rest. Yeah.
And so, McKenna talked, about the rape, the whipping, the satisfaction of killing the men. And Julia listened.
At the end of the hour, they were both wrung out, talking about it hurt, but listening and caring like Julia did, meant she hurt too.
"You amaze me, McKenna. I don’t know if I could have done what you did. And over all, you are handling it well. One caution."
"Sure, you’re here to help not hurt."
"Don’t use the animal form too often to avoid dreams. Dreams help us deal with stuff, sort out emotions, and process events. If the nightmares get bad, absolutely. Heck, the fact that there is a non-drug way for you to avoid the dreams delights me. But dream as much as you can handle and let yourself process everything."
McKenna nodded slowly. "Okay. I see your point. Same thing for Charley, I assume."
"Yeah, though I’d let him escape more often. If he slips into night terrors, and trust me you’ll know the difference, encourage him to sleep as an animal. But over time the bad dreams should lessen."
"Thanks. Want me to send him in?"
"No. Yeesh. I’m not the principal. Bring him in, introduce him, and let’s the three of us talk first. He needs to want this, not think it's a punishment."
"Wait, it isn’t?"
Julia glared at her and McKenna laughed getting up to go hunt down Charley.
McKenna didn’t have far to go, she found Charley watching the organized chaos in the main area of the station with people being booked while sitting with the sergeant. She couldn’t read the expression on his face, but she didn’t sense any stress through their link, though maybe it didn’t work that way. She’d have to play with it more.
"Anne get tired of you?"
The sergeant and Charley looked up at her.
"Nah, she had a call she needed to take, he’s only been here for a minute," the sergeant said.
"This is different. TV always made it seem like people were screaming and yelling in handcuffs. This is, quieter?" His voice was bemused. "Not as scary as I thought."
McKenna snorted. "Contrary to popular opinion we really don’t want people to fear us. We are here to be the good guys."
The sergeant darted a look at her, and she heard the unspoken comment of ‘most of us at least’ though neither of them said anything.
"Huh," Charley said still looking.
"Ready to come meet Julia?"
That pulled his attention away from the officers in the room and back on to her.
"I guess."
McKenna rolled her eyes. "Come on kiddo, promise you’ll like her."
They walked back down the hall and into the conference room where Julia sat typing away on her phone. She looked up as they entered and put the phone away.
"Julia, this is Charley Davis, Charley this is Julia Conner."
"Hey, Charley. McKenna told me about some of the stuff you two went through. I have to say I’m impressed. I don’t think I would have been that calm or smart."
Charley looked at her, eyes wide. "But you’re an adult."
Julia snorted. "Which doesn’t mean anything. Being an adult doesn’t mean we know what to do, just means we think we should."
"Oh." He gave her a wary look and McKenna nudged him.
"Really just talk to her. It won’t be bad. If you need me, yell out." She gave him a look, and he nodded.
Smart kid, he knew what I meant without me needing to say anything.
She nodded at them and left, heading to Anne’s office.
Anne was hanging up her phone when McKenna stuck her head in. "Hey. Kid with the shrink?"
"Yeah, asked her to talk to him. I’m thinking comparatively, considering everything that has happened, I’m pretty sane."
"You are. Wish all my officers were as solid as you. So ready to come back to work?"
"Yes. Sitting at home is going to drive me crazy. I really don’t want to think. But I did want to ask about some reward? JD mentioned it?"
Anne’s eyes lit up. "Oh, that’s right, you wouldn’t know. Kirk has all the details. I’ll send you his way after we get the rest of your stuff settled."
The next twenty minutes McKenna spent on paperwork. Boring but needed.
"I think that is it. You’ve got a week back on regular duty with JD, then transfer to narcotics. They’ll want you to do some training before you start. I’ll email you what they’ll brief you on, so you can get ahead."
McKenna nodded. "I assume JD has this already?"
"Sent it to him yesterday." Anne paused and looked at her. "You sure you want to do this?"
"I think so. I think I need to do something else and maybe I’ll be good at smelling the drugs or something. Either way it gets me out of your hair, so you should be glad to see me go."
"Not quite. But I’m sure you will be good at it." Anne typed on her computer for a minute. "Okay, he has time now, head on down to see him."
McKenna rose. "Thanks again, Anne, for everything."
Anne waved a dismissive hand. "Shoo. Some of us have real work to do."
With a grin McKenna headed to Kirk’s office, for once without dread or resentment. Knocking on the door jamb as she stuck her head in.
"Officer Largo, come in." Kirk glanced up at her and waved to a seat. "I’m glad to see you appear well. Definitely more rested than last time I saw you. An adventure like yours is bound to be exhausting."
"Adventure? Is that what we are calling it? I thought hell might be a bit more appropriate."
"Probably, but how do you cover a week like yours? Adventures seems fitting."
"Yeah, I guess it was rather movie like." She fell silent not sure how to bring up the next part.
Kirk quirked his lips. "I assume Davidson told you about Perc Alexander?"
"A little, but to be honest I’m not sure I understand. Why would he raise the reward for information relating to the kidnapping, but ensure I got it?"
"I can’t say that I fully know either. But I think he felt some kinship after he was taken and rescued himself. He wanted to make sure you got the reward if you got yourself out. Which you did. Before I accepted it, I checked with legal. As you were on leave while you rescued yourself, you earned the money. I’d talk to an accountant to make sure of the tax liabilities, but the money will be deposited in your account later this week."
McKenna just blinked at him in shock.
"Anything else, Officer Largo?"
"No, not that I know of." She rose and headed to the door.
"Largo?"
McKenna turned and glanced at him.
"I know I told you before, but you need to hear this. You did a damn good job." His eyes were steady, and she knew he’d seen the videos, so she took it as he meant
it, nodded and walked out, not wanting to address the inner turmoil.
[You did handle the situation well and protected the young ones. You deserve the praise.]
McKenna fought not to hunch her shoulders as Wefor spoke. She avoided it instead heading for the conference room, hoping Julia and Charley were done.
The door stood open as she walked over.
"You two all talked out?" She asked as she walked inside to ruffle Charley’s hair and check on him. His eyes were a little red, but he seemed okay, smiling up at her.
"I think so. He has some homework assignments from me, but we’ll talk again in two weeks. I’ll send you my office information when I get moved."
"Great. Thanks again. Come on kiddo, lets head home and enjoy my few days off. Then make sure we know where you’ll be after school?"
He grinned up at her nodding. "Sure."
Chapter 11 - Prejudiced
Evidence has emerged of military squads in North Korea composed wholly of shifters. Photos of them in animal form with new uniforms that allow objects to be fastened to them, but don’t restrict their quadrupedal movement. While pictures are limited, it does imply options of how North Korea might be planning on using shifters and puts lie to their claim that no North Koreans shifted. ~TNN News Anchor
McKenna didn’t know if it would count as a blessing or a curse that Charley seemed to be a morning person. Usually waking up ready to go and cheerful. He dragged a bit this morning, but she knew it had to do with school. Her goal for the day centered on getting him back in school and make sure all the contact information pointed to her. All the kids had been off this week just to make sure they were okay. And even though she’d had to pry it out of Charley, he’d felt better after talking to Julia.
He stared at his plate, poking at the food.
"Why don’t you want to go to school? Besides the school part?"
He shrugged not looking up at her.
"You know that you’ll be in the same school as Jessi and Jamie now, right?"
Charley glanced up at her. "I am? I thought they were just saying maybe."
"Nope. Same school. Granted different grades, cause you’re in fourth and they’ll be in first. And then you’re going to stay with them and Toni until I come get you each afternoon."
