A/N: VERY STRONG T RATING FOR THIS CHAPTER.

Chapter 26

"Queen Cheetara! Can you explain the sudden rebirth of the Princess?"

"How are the King and the Prince taking it?"

"What happened at the Lair? Why is everyone being forced to stay outside?"

"What is the King's condition?"

"Gentlemen, your questions will be answered one at a time and in a more civilized manner. If you do not back up from the podium I will be forced to remove you," Ben-Gali was close to bearing his fangs at the crowd of press that eagerly awaited the cheetah's announcement after a press conference had been called. The white tiger felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned to see Cheetara giving him a smile.

"I appreciate the protection. If Lion-O were here they wouldn't be acting so," she kept her voice low.

"Yes well apparently I'm not as scary as your husband," he chuckled. This made the Queen laugh and she carefully guided herself to the podium. The crutches were leaned up against the chair behind her in case she needed them and she leaned on the podium for support.

"Good afternoon, people of Thundera. I know you all have questions and I will try to answer them as quickly as I can," she paused. The crowd of reporters had their eyes glued to her and she was secretly wondering how Lion-O managed to deal with this on a regular basis.

"First let me tell you that Princess Sahara is under the best medical care on Thundera. The doctors are working as quickly as they can to understand her condition and we hope to have news soon. We are all hopeful she will come back to us as strong and as healthy as she should be. As for the King, he is recovering very well and wishes to thank everyone for all the cards and gifts he has been sent,"

"The Lair cannot be occupied until the cause of the mysterious explosion can be identified. What I can tell you is that we have crews working around the clock looking for answers and as soon as I have them, you will have them. In the meantime, I wish to thank the people of Thundera for opening their homes to our displaced ThunderGuard members. Lion-O tells me a new larger garrison is to be built soon so that we may avoid such troubles in the future. Thank you," with that the press conference was over and reporters left feeling that they were missing out on something. Still the Queen was true to her word and they knew that their answers would come soon.

Meanwhile Panthro sat in his office down in the hangar working on some sort of cockamamie story to explain the explosion and destruction inside the Lair. Structurally the building would live to fight another day as the door was removed and the wall, along with the beam behind it, was replaced. A new freezer door was being built by the local steel shop along with a couple spares just in case they had another incident. The sprinkler heads and piping were easy to replace and were being worked on immediately. The new security camera needed a new wiring connection but they had all the equipment they needed and that was being replaced as well. Thankfully the only thing that had to be outsourced was the door and the panther had an idea of how to explain it provided the physics made sense.

"Any luck?" Lea asked as she walked into her husband's office.

"My brain needs a break," he muttered rubbing the heels of his palms on his broad forehead. Lea pouted, moved behind his chair, and started massaging his shoulders.

"That feels good," he sighed, closing his eyes.

"I bet. You have one heck of a knot back here," the lioness said trying to relax the muscle problem away. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the more she rubbed, the more some other muscle reacted. Lea coughed and the panther moved his head back and just smirked.

"I know we've been busy but a shoulder rub shouldn't stand at attention," she told him.

"Yes well considering how long it's been I think any amount of attention is warranted," he said as he spun around and pulled her into his lap.

"Hello there," she said feeling the bulge in his uniform. He pulled her close and crushed his lips against hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck and they both were completely lost in one another until someone needed to come up for air.

"Where?" He asked.

"No one is here," she jerked her head toward the hangar and the panther knew immediately what she wanted. There was nothing hotter than the two of them in the Tank. He stood up and wrapped her legs around his waist. They continued to kiss until he reached the Tank and opened the hatch.

To Be Continued…