CHAPTER 17

"We had a crazy night to say the least but in the end Baloo found Kit and then the cops found them both and brought them home. As a matter of fact, Kit slept in his bed last night, woke up and will be eating breakfast soon. We had to resolve some issues, yes, but I think things are on their way to returning to normal." Rebecca was concluding the conversation with Mrs. Gold, checking all the boxes on the child welfare list and reassuring her that although there was trouble that it had since past. She asked why she hadn't received a call from the police last night regarding the situation and was informed that the officers at the station last night figured that since the APB had been dismissed on the grounds that the child had been found and returned home with his father and sole legal guardian that there was no need to call the residence in question at such a late hour and that it would be best to allow Mrs. Gold to check in the following morning, a course of action that Rebecca reasoned was logical. "Well, I guess I'll let you go now Mrs. Gold. I have a grown man next to me who is sweating like a kid in the principal's office. I best fill him in on what's happening before he has a heart attack. Heaven knows the last thing I need on my hands is another hospital visit. Mrs. Gold only laughed on the other end before they both said their goodbyes and hung up the phone.

Baloo had been sitting and listening for what seemed like ages but in fact was only about twenty minutes. He was sweating bullets while fumbling and twisting and rolling his hat in his hands so much that Rebecca was tempted to ask him who made such an object that could take so much abuse and show no apparent signs of wearing but decided that now was not the time. "So what's happin' Beckers? Is everythin' alright? Is Kit…Kit's not being taken….is he?"

Rebecca smiled and chuckled a little before turning to her pilot and all but slapping him back into his senses. "Baloo, everything is fine. I told you last night, remember? No one can take Kit away. The adoption is final. Done. Complete. Finito! The only other person who can get custody of him is me, in which case he still wouldn't go anywhere."

Baloo placed his hand on his chest and breathed easy. "I know Beckers, but, well put yer feet in my shoes." He gestured towards the sofa in the corner, "Imagine losin' Molly."

Rebecca's smile fell from her face. Baloo had a point. A weak point, but a good point nonetheless. No one could take Molly from her, not while she still drew breath. Unlike Kit, for Molly, Rebecca had natural birth parent laws on her side and it was difficult to legally terminate parental rights forcefully. Also, there was no next of kin. If something happened to Rebecca then Molly was doomed to the foster system, or worse, an orphanage. Baloo was a good man, but he couldn't navigate the bureaucracy of getting custody of her on his own. He wasn't a smart bear but he truly cared for his son and worried about him and Rebecca was an ass for not considering this earlier for she knew that she would do the same if the tables were turned. Rebecca resolved that she would have to deal with this later. In the meantime she had to bring her mind back to the subject at hand that demanded her attention. Baloo still feared losing Kit, even if it was an irrational fear.

She reached for his hand, gently cradling it in both of hers, "You're right Baloo, I am sorry. But remember, you have the papers, I have the papers, and there are extra papers in the safe. He is our boy now and he isn't going anywhere."

There it was again. The term "Our Boy" gave Baloo mixed feelings when he heard it coming from her lips. He approved and disapproved of it at the same time. Baloo was Kit's legal father and Rebecca was his legal next of kin, not his mother. Yet Baloo kept finding himself with an ever shifting viewpoint on the matter. Kit was HIS son, HE adopted him, and HE was responsible for him and his wellbeing. However Boss-lady was undeniably a fair counterbalance in the field of parenting to his lack of willingness to put his proverbial foot down. And, ironically, when Baloo did put his foot down she was the same counterbalance to insure that he didn't put his foot down too hard or to help clean up the mess he made when it all went sideways; like it did last night. Not to mention the fact that she significantly helped in the signin', the stampin', the copyin', the authentication, and the rest of all that technical legal mumbo jumbo that was so far above Baloo's head that not even the Seaduck at maximum altitude could help him reach to understand it all. For all his desire to keep Becky at a distance, he wanted to also keep her close. It was selfish of him to want to hog Kit all to himself given all she had done to secure the kid a home and he knew that. His inner selfishness became especially apparent to himself on the rare events when he had to babysit for Molly; or had the privilege rather. Rebecca was sharing her daughter with him, allowing a bond to form, so he should do the same and share his son with her. He just loved that damn kid so much that he didn't want to ever let him go.

Baloo pulled his boss into a hug. The giant lug of a bear had never been so upfront before, but everyone had their moments. Perhaps this was his way of letting it out, and in the few seconds that the hug lasted Baloo had a whole mile long train of thought race through his head. Kit was already twelve and a half, or something close to it. What with all the secrets Kit kept he had never revealed his exact birthday to anyone. But Baloo knew that soon he would be a teenager and that meant that his little buddy wouldn't be so little no more. He loved being a father so much, but that is the thing about being a parent, if you do your job well, you will soon find that you are no longer needed. Baloo felt morose about the whole thing. Rebecca has Molly for the full eighteen years, he on the other hand would only have his son for six before he sped off to college to become some hot shot educated pilot somewhere, leaving Baloo to haul cargo all alone again on endless silent plane rides, or sitting by himself at the bar at Louie's sipping on a sundae with no one to share it with. He didn't want that. Of all the many many times he had flown alone he had never been lonely, and now he knew that once Kit grew and left for bigger and better things a phantom of the past would occupy that empty navigator seat and it would haunt and taunt him with the shadows and sounds of memories of what had been. He wished he could put time in a bottle and set it in a cellar like wine and keep it forever. But for now he still had him. For now he could still spend time with him. And he wouldn't miss it for the world.

He released her as quickly as he had pulled her in and composed himself. She looked around the room for a moment and noticed it seemed a little empty. "Uh, Baloo, where is Kit anyways?"

"In the kitchen I think, he hasn't eaten since…" He scratched his head like he always did when he was attempting to remember something, "...well come ta think of it I don't even know if the Air Circus fed 'im. So if he didn't eat there then he ain't eaten in about three days; no wonder he's been so grumpy."

Rebecca eyed Baloo as if to say, "Really? Yeah, that's why he has been grumpy. That's what has been wrong this whole time. I could have just made him a BLT and we'd of all been copasetic. Never mind all that what happened on the plane or at the air circus, or that he hit me with a bat, or that we just had a come-to-Jesus meeting here! He was just hungry and corndog would have done the trick." She just shook her head. Sometimes Baloo couldn't see the forest through the trees.

Molly was working on her next puzzle and spoke up without a second thought while putting another cardboard piece in its place when she heard mention of the two adults in the room looking for Kit. "Kit left when the phone rang." And then she just went back to her puzzle, attempting to place another piece before realizing that it did not belong where she thought.

"Oh God, here we go again." Rebecca brought her arms to her chest and her right palm to her face. She had thought that things had been hammered out, apparently she was wrong.

"What!? Did he say where he was goin'?" Baloo's blood pressure might as well have been on a roller coaster because it had just shot back up.

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Kit had been casually strolling for a few blocks, his head was down and the sun had been beating on his exposed neck while the cold wind blew through his brown fur from the front that had moved through last night. He kicked a defenseless pebble down the sidewalk listening to its taps on the concrete while fidgeting with some lint in his sweater pockets. His mind was elsewhere and that somehow drowned out the noise of the daytime city life. He hadn't been gone from Higher for Hire for long, he just had to prove to himself that he really wasn't dead, that he wasn't in hell or something and that in fact he could escape. To now have a breather from everything was proof enough that indeed he was still alive. And since Ms. Cunningham and Molly were alive as well as unharmed, well mostly, he had felt a great weight lifted from his shoulders. Every now and then his gaze would drift from the pebble to look in the windows of the shops he was passing. A butcher here, a bakery there, and a candy shop that had caught his attention for a moment. He went to open the door to simply browse about it and he noticed in the glass of the door that he no longer saw the monster in his reflection. Instead he only saw a sad lost boy. Why did he feel so down and out? Why did he feel so lost still? Kit released his hand from the door handle and continued walking until he stopped at the corner of the block and waited for the traffic to stop so he could cross, taking a deep breath and letting it out with a sigh, his breath appearing as a cloud in front of him for an instant before vanishing just as quickly.

The past few days felt like cloud surfing in the dark with his eyes closed, the plane pulling him, throwing him, and whipping him this way and that with the whiplash while the pilot towing him was spinning and turning and diving; he had no control and all he could do was hold on for dear life. Kit thought back to some of the things his therapist had said all those months ago before the adoption was finalized. "All Baloo does is nice things for me…and I screw it up." He remembered the conversation that followed and those words from Mrs. Istel which put things into perspective. "What you just described Kit, is the standard act of a father being there for his child, have you ever considered Baloo asks nothing of you because he generally cares only for your wellbeing?" He had never had a parent before Baloo, no one who would just GIVE him things without asking or demanding something in return. Kit crossed the street kicking the pebble across the pavement until he lost it to the gutter. His right foot was starting to hurt from his injury on the bottom of it causing him to stop walking for a moment and sit down on a bench in front of a hardware store. The instant he sat down the door opened with a ringing bell and out stepped Wildcat who noticed Kit from the back immediately.

"Oah! Hay 'der Kit. What's happenin'?"

Wildcat had his arms full with whose-its and whats-its and thing-a-ma-bobs and other tools for tinkering of which only a mechanical wonder wiz of his caliber could possibly understand or hope to use correctly.

Kit turned slightly to his right obviously not expecting to see anyone he knew here. "Oh, Uhh, nothing."

"Oh well okay den, 'ave a good day Kit, see ya down at the shop, be careful." Wildcat spoke in his normal upper key cheerful innocent tone. He readjusted all his bags of mechanical tech and started down the road when Kit stopped him.

"Hay, Wildcat, can I ask you a question?"

Wildcat turned back around to face him. "Well sure Kit, but ya know ya just did right?"

Kit couldn't help but smile. He did not feel like joking around but Wildcat had that effect on people, no matter how terrible it was he always found a way to offer levity to somber situations.

"Wildcat, do you trust Baloo?"

For the first time in Kit's memory Wildcat did not smile or become otherwise animated, he simply stood there confused like a statue for a minute before putting his bags down and responding. "Naow, what would make ya wanna ask a silly question like that? Of course I trust Baloo, notta day goes by since the War dat I don't not never forget what he done gone an' went an' done did; ya shoulda seen it Kit!" Wildcat leaned in close and whispered, "He saved my life, ya know?"

Kit stared at Wildcat, blinked, and simply asked, "Um, what?" He had no idea what he said or meant aside from the fact that he trusted Baloo and that he saved his life.

"'ere Kit, I don't think ya're apprehendin' da vocabularium commin' outta my mouth to yer think-maker." Wildcat thought for a second before grabbing his zipper on his jumpsuit whilst Kit simply sat there more confused than a chameleon in a jar full of gumballs.

"I like zippers Kit. They're so easy ta use, so quick to operate" He fingered the zipper on his jumpsuit, moving it a few inches from his neck to his chest and back again. "But no one knows how dey werk. They go inta this here little doo-hicky as two different parts and come out tagether as one. Do dey fight with each other or do dey just want to be tagether? Zippers really are a mystery."

Kit was looking at Wildcat as if he was his algebra teacher, but he thought he knew where this was going; and to think that all this time he believed that Wildcat was oblivious to the events of the past few days. "But Wildcat, zippers break..." Kit looked down and mumbled, "…just like everything else."

Wildcat came in close and winked as he held his hand up with his pointer finger extended waving it a little as he smiled and whispered, "Not if ya treat 'em right and real nice…..I've been usin' dis same one fer years!"

Kit had no response to that; how was he to make a rebuttal to someone who could and had just divined the secrets of the universe from a zipper on his chest?

"Ya see Kit, ya can't expect only one part uh da zipper to work fer ya, both parts 'ave ta work ta bring it all tagether. Sometimes 'der's a little doo-hicky dat splits da two apart, but 'der's also a little doo-hicky ta bring 'em back tagether. Maybe ya just need ta find yerself somethin' ta fix yer zipper at home?"

Wildcat turned, picked up his bags and started walking down the street, "I'll see ya at home Kit; got me a few more stops ta make. Also, stop by my place fer yer bat; I'm not sure how it ended up there, it just kinda showed up da s'mornin'."

Kit had just had his mind blown by a zipper. He got up and started walking down the sidewalk again opposite the direction Wildcat went. "Well, now I know where my bat is." He made a mental note to get it later along with reflecting on what Wildcat had said. What had he done to try and make things work at home? He did his best to wrap his mind around the crazy zipper metaphor but try as he might he couldn't figure out what Wildcat was trying to get at for him to make things work. He knew what he had done to make it all fall apart and it all started with him running away. Every time he ran, bad things happened to follow.

Suddenly a realization of thought brought Kit's footfalls to an immediate halt. "Every time I have run from Baloo things have gotten worse for me!" He looked up at the clear blue sky and knew what he had to do. He had been told numerous times but he didn't understand until right now at this moment. That, and he was just afraid to believe that someone could actually care about a thieving smelly street-rat sky-pirate such as himself. But someone did, and it took hearing it a million times for him to actually believe it. For all the hard times and pain he had suffered through he felt as through his universe began to feel…love. A smile crept about his face and Kit took off at full sprint down the sidewalk; if only his track coach could see him now he'd make the team for sure! He ran and jumped and skipped over trashcans, tree branches, and other debris that littered his way, reminders of the chaos from the storm the night before. He knew where he belonged, and at long last he finally knew where home was. Always before he had been "running from", now he was "running to". He felt light as a feather and had more energy than ever before, he could not explain how or why; even the hunger of his stomach had ceased for the time being. It was only a few blocks, not more than a mile or less, and once he got there he swore he would never run from home again.

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Baloo turned from Molly and seemed to run in place for a moment before moving towards the door like a character in a cartoon unable to gain traction on the ground.

"Becky! Call the Cops! Tell 'em that he ran again! No, wait! Tell 'em he was kidnapped!"

Baloo was bouncing about the place like a frantic turkey the night before Thanksgiving Day. He was sprinting towards the door and after that he had no clue where he was going. He thought that he and Kit had reconnected, that their bond had been reestablished, that his little buddy was here to stay this time. Where could he have gone? He just disappeared like a school student when the bell rang. Baloo reflected on that for a second before considering where he was going to go to look for him. Where did that damn kid run off to now?! He figured that he would head to the street and after that pick a direction and go.

"Baloo, where are you going? We don't even know where he went!" Rebecca yelled with the phone receiver in her hands, her other hand raised in preparation to dial the rotary phone.

Baloo had stopped at the door to put his coat on. It had dried over the evening and Baloo hadn't been outside since he had taken Kit's bat to Wildcat's place for safe keeping and also to pick up a spare lock that he was sure to just have laying around. He didn't know what Kit would do once he stirred from his deep and much needed slumber, but the last thing he desired was for him to start breaking things or run away again. Baloo eyed the open lock, "So much for that plan" he thought as he opened the door and responded to Rebecca's inquiry.

"I dunno Beckers, I reckon I'll just pick a direction, maybe make a stop at the Jungle Aces clubhouse, it's a school day so I doubt any of his friends are there right now no ways."

Baloo shut the door before Rebecca could say another word. She was about to dial when she remembered what she had stated to Kit earlier. She slowly and calmly and put the receiver back down and made her way into the kitchen and out of Molly's sight; she couldn't let her see her mother in such a state. She leaned against the wall and slid down to the ground. Her eyes red and watery, she wiped them with the sleeve of her shirt. Kit had made his choice, and now he was gone.

-END CHAPTER 17-