Journeys Pt 14.

I've had a couple of responses regarding the cliffhanger in the last chapter. Believe me when I say that it was done for a reason and there are some clues as to why within the story. The cats are pretty resilient though. They mourn and move on as reincarnation plays a big part in their belief system.

I'd like to thank The Passionate Admiral for his review. I've read all your stories and I am a big fan of yours so it's great that you are enjoying something that I've written.

MsCloverJellicle, I'm sorry it's taken so long but here you go.

Faded Book, Don't cry. To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

I'm trying something just a little different with the start of this chapter and taking it into the first person of one of our support characters.

Now on with the story.

…

Mouths dropped open around our group, we didn't know how to respond to the news that Jerrie had just revealed to us. I mean how were we supposed to react? I drew Jac into my arms as the tears began. "How did this happen Twitch?" she murmured. "Haven't we gone through enough with the kittens and now this?"

I didn't know what to say or how to say it. For once in my life I was completely unable to bring myself to lighten the mood. I pride myself on my reputation as an airhead and my ability to get everyone to laugh and smile, even if it is in resigned acceptance of my actions.

It comes from my mother, she told me when I was young and was a little upset when Jet called me a clown, "The ability to dance and sing can bring joy to everyone for a brief time, but being able to joke and make people laugh when they are at their darkest is a gift that lasts forever. Cherish it and let people think what they will. Remember those nearest and dearest to you will always know and love you for what you are."

I whispered some inane platitudes to her and somehow they seemed to be of comfort, while Jerrie gave us an explanation. "About two weeks ago, Vic was coming back to the junkyard from her human home after dark, and was clipped by a car. She managed to get back to the junkyard but Jenny wasn't able to save her. Munk tried to contact us before we left for the eagle camp, and get Chris home, but missed us by a day. They waited as long as they could and held the funeral six days ago."

Chris had taken off the dark glasses that he wore constantly as a human and was sitting there holding onto one of Gemma's hands for grim death, tears streaking both their faces, it'd have been quite cute and I'd give him hell for it on any other day, but today I just reached over and rested my hand on his shoulder in support. Gem just tightened her free arm around his back, it was actually great to see the two of them together, and thanked me with her eyes.

The celebrations about Pete and Jo's news kind of died out in light of the news from home and I really felt sorry for them. This was a huge part of their lives and it'd just been overshadowed by an event on the other side of the planet. I made a point of congratulating them again and trying to swing the mood back to what it was before the phone call, but we all kept thinking back to our white friend/aunt/mother and mentor who was no longer there.

The party kind of just died off and people made their way back to their rooms. Gemma pulled me aside and asked if I would mind finding somewhere else to sleep tonight as she wanted to spend the night with Chris and be there if he needed her. It's not what you think. Both of them were underage but all us adults (Yes, I do consider myself an adult, well sometimes I do) knew that they were both too sensible to do anything that they might regret. Gem had been studying under Jenny as a tribe counsellor and was the best qualified to deal with anything that might arise during the night. This was all well and good but it left me without a bed to sleep in.

I decided that I'd sit down at the bar and have another beer while all the events of the night sunk in. I was sitting there watching some cricket, they were screening a repeat of the Boxing Day test on the TV, when Jacaranda re-entered the bar and came over.

"There you are. I've been looking everywhere for you." She stood there with her hands on her hips, glaring at me as if it was my fault she didn't know where I was.

"Well there dahlin" I said in one of the worst Australian accents you've ever heard, "Oi'm righ' 'ere an' 'ave been awl noight."

She burst into giggles, my work here is done, "don't do that. You sound like dad after he's been into the catnip" and plomped herself down on the seat next to me. "I heard from Gem that you had nowhere to sleep tonight?"

"Correct, my dear. At the moment I am without a place of repose." I switched to a pompous approach, kind of like old Bustopher on a bad day, before he passed away of course.

"Oh Bast. That one's even worse." She covered her ears up in jest before turning a bit shy on me.

"Well seeing as Gems taken over your room and you don't have a bed and I have one spare now. Would you like to use it. To sleep I mean."

She was so beautiful when she blushed. I don't care what form she was in, she was perfect in any one of them. "Sure, but what about your parents? What do Jerrie and Tease think of this?"

"They've already gone to bed and what they don't know won't hurt them, and all we're going to do is sleep."

"What they don't know won't hurt them" I mimicked in a falsetto voice. "No, but if your dad found out I've spent the night in your room it'd probably hurt me, and your mum is simply scary." I grinned to make sure she knew I was joking and threw back the dregs of my beer, before standing and offering her my hand like a good gentlecat. "Shall we?"

She answered my grin with one of her own. "Yes, We shall."

We made our way up to the floor we were all staying on in a kind of comfortable silence, as the elevator doors opened I remembered something. "I just have to get something from my room. Give me a sec."

I ducked into the room and looked briefly at the two Jellicles curled up asleep on the pillows of the bed. The small black form wrapped around the mottled brown and black tom. I quietly pulled a small package out of my pack that I'd picked up during a brief trip into Alice Springs earlier in the afternoon, and then slipped out again.

Jac was waiting outside the door, "Ready now?"

"Yep" I answered and took off at a dead run down the hallway towards her room, laughing as I ran.

"Hey!" she exclaimed and I heard her sprint after me. I'm fast but by the everlasting cat that queen can run. She caught me quite easily in the hallway and passed me without even breaking a sweat, reaching her door a good 5 seconds ahead. By the time I got there she already had the key in the door and was rushing in. I knew she was going to slam it shut on me, but I got my foot in the way just in time.

The door bounced back open and I swung Jac up onto my shoulder before throwing her onto one of the beds. Laughing wildly she rebounded back to her feet and jumped onto my back as I turned to shut the door. Well I wasn't having any of that so I reached behind my head to her upper arms and pulled them apart before flipping her over my head onto the bed once more. Nearly everyone forgets exactly how strong I am, including me, when I need or want to be. The little minx seeing that she wasn't going to get me using brute force fell back on my one weakness.

She waited until I sat down and then leapt upon me and started running her fingers up and down my sides. I roared in laughter and twisted and turned to no avail, this was an old tactic and Jac knew exactly where I was the most ticklish, I was helpless and she knew it.

"I give, I give." I cried.

Jac gave a few more swipes of those clever fingers of hers and then let me sit up. "That was fun" she said. "It was like we were kittens again."

"I know." I said. "Hey it's still a little early. Want to watch a movie?"

"Sure. What choices do we have?"

I flipped on the tv and cycled through the in house and pay tv movies, before settling on a cheesy comedy about some chipmunks that sang and danced. We settled into our hybrid forms and watched Alvin and his brothers get into all sorts of unlikely scrapes and then seem to get out of them just as easily. As it reached the end Jac asked me what I'd stopped back in my room to get.

"Oh. I almost forgot. Where is it." I rifled through my discarded clothing and found the package in a pants pocket.

"Well. You know how it was Christmas a couple of days ago and we were out at the Eagle camp. Well I was thinking about it a bit and when we got to town I wanted to give you something special, so I went into the shops today and found this." I handed her the gift I'd wrapped that afternoon.

Jac looked at it and then back at me, "It's not going to blow up or anything, is it?"

I just shook my head and motioned her to open it. I'd put a lot of thought into this gift and I hoped she liked it. I knew how I felt about her, but I just couldn't bring myself to put it into words that weren't associated with a joke or prank. This was the only way that I could think of that would even come close to letting her know how I felt. The sound of ripping paper ceased and I cringed a bit inside waiting for her reaction.

"Oh Twitch. They're beautiful. Can you help me put them on?" she said in an awed voice and moved to stand in front of the mirror.

I took the double string of Sapphires and Topaz and draped them about her neck doing the clasp up, before standing back to admire them on her throat.

"Gorgeous, and the necklace isn't bad either." I said before sitting back on one of the beds.

Jac stood there for a moment with her forepaw on the gemstones, watching the interplay of light and contrast on her calico fur, before she turned around and jumped on my lap, locking her lips with mine. "I love you, and I love your present" she said after a moment, coming up for air.

Blame the surprise a bit, or blame me for being a bit dense, or even that I'd NEVER been kissed like that before, but it took a couple of breaths for what Jac said to permeate through my brain.

"What? You what?" I stammered.

"I love you, you big lunkhead. Always have and always will. Didn't you know that?"

"I. Um. I."

"Hmm. I guess not. Well I do and I know you do too so what are you going to do about it?" she asked me.

"I. Um. I…"

"Yep I got that bit. Want to try for a full sentence or even another syllable or two?" Jac was obviously enjoying this and I just needed to get my brain working and connected to my tounge.

"I love you too." I finally managed to get it out, it must have been the right thing to say as she immediately cuddled up to me and started purring. I've never felt anything quite so perfect in all my life. I wrapt my arms around her and simply held her, feeling the vibrations of her purrs penetrating my very being. They slowly deepened into sleep as my new queenfriend dozed off in my arms.

Now I was worried. Here I was with the Jellicle that I'd loved my entire life and who I'd just found out reciprocated my feelings, she was underage, and we were alone in a hotel room with her passed out in my arms. I couldn't move without waking her up from her peaceful slumber so I did what anyone would.

I fell asleep.

A few hours later I woke to a comfortable furry weight on my arm and a delightful scent in my nose. Somewhere in the night we'd shifted position and were now spooned up to one another, I'd just decided to close my eyes again and drift back off to sleep when I heard the worst thing in the world.

"What in Basts Name is going on in here?" screeched a queen.

I turned my head and saw the agitated faces of my new queenfriends parents…

…

Well there you go. A little bit of humour and fluff after the last few chapters. Not quite as long as normal but I don't want to start on the next bit this late in the chapter or it'd go on too long.

I'm not sure how the first person thing went so please let me know your thoughts.