Two fun little minisodes setting up some interesting concepts that will be explored further in chapter 9 onwards.

Setting up the let down

She was right, Mr Beck wasn't gonna be able to get out of prison with the two goofballs being his underlings. Oh, they weren't stupid so much as inept at sweet talking. But everyone thought Dove was gay, and T-Bone lacked brains.

Actually Dove was very much straight, but his ghastly white face and greenish black hair didn't fix that effeminate way he had. T-Bone was well, T-Bone. He loved food more than talking.

But her! She knew how to get Mr B out of prison, and after the coded letter he sent her. It was gonna happen, all she had to do was mosey up to the people Mr B referred to in his letters, and get the goods out of em. She was excited.

"Ok boys, now just do what Mista B told us an' all goes according to plan!" She thrust her fist in the air excitedly. This woman was young, blonde, and love pink fur coats.

"You got it, Yume!" The boys chimed in together.

TO BE CONTINUED

Dealing with Reality

Ray had been having a rough week, well, more like a difficult time mourning. Ray had made great strides in getting along with Dorothy, but since Pero's death, Dorothy had been withdrawn. Ray knew it was just her way of mourning, but she felt terrible. No matter how she tried to engage, Dorothy would just walk away or hide in her room.

In other words, Ray couldn't cheer up the crestfallen gynoid.

"Hey Ray, I want to talk to you for a minute." Roger knocked on her bedroom door. He had skipped the jackets and slacks today, wearing a black t shirt and jeans to avoid overheating at the end of July.

"Ok, about what?"

"Well, come to my office and you'll see." Ray followed Roger to his office, and on the desk she saw something rather unexpected.

"Is that a...?" She let the question hang, letting Roger choose how he would go about explaining this situation.

"Yeah," he sighed and rubbed his temples before continuing, "I just finished negotiating for a couple, getting their precious cat back, and they paid me with that." He pointed to the small cat carrier on his desk.

Inside, the occupant moved around, but said nothing.

"Is it ok if I open the cage?"

"Yeah sure, but don't let it escape." Roger watched as Ray carefully opened the cage and backed off. "Hey didn't I just say…?"

"It's scared, if I stick my hands in it'll claw me. So I'm letting it come out on it's own terms." Ray watched as the kitten emerged. It wasn't a Russian Blue like Pero had been, but a Tuxedo with unique coloring. Instead of being black and white, it was black and grey, maybe only a few months old. Hm… In the Japanese only epilogue manga Roger did get paid with a kitten for negotiating the return of someones breeder cat, and Dorothy instantly took too it, maybe this is that cat, but it looked like Pero right? Well, we'll find out if this is one of those experiments or not.

"Come 'ere little guy." Ray beckoned to the small kitten. Slowly it moved to her hand she had outstretched, sniffed her hand, and started rubbing against her hand purring like an engine. "Well aren't you just a cutey. So what do you plan to do with it?"

Roger scratched at his chin and seemed conflicted. "Well, I wanted to give it to Dorothy, but Pero passed away only a week ago, and I'm not sure we should keep this one, given that it could be another one of that madman's creations."

"Meow!" The kitten protested its lack of attention loudly. But there was no voice! It's not an experiment, then that means.

"So if it's not an experimental kitten you're going to give it to Dorothy?" Ray looked at Roger rather expectantly.

"Well, I'm not sure I should…"

YOINK! Ray had to kitten in her arms and was halfway to the door before Roger even had time to react.

"...as it could just make her more depressed. Hey get back here Ray!" He shouted as he tried to follow her.

The self defense practice, and having played tag with Dorothy a few days a week, had radically improved Rays stamina. She skipped the elevator, knowing Roger would catch her if she waited for it, and took the stairs two at a time rushing up them. By the time she had run up the two floors to the servants quarters, Roger was barely up the first few stairs. She burst through the door, ran straight to Dorothy's room, didn't bother knocking on the half open door, just kicked it in.

"Ray what are you…?" Before a rather internally startled Dorothy could finish the sentence, Ray had dumped the kitten into her lap.

"Roger got the kitten for completing a negotiation and he didn't know if he should give it to you because he's a wuss and doesn't understand your feelings but he really wanted you to have it, ok bye." Ray spat that all out in one breath, turned and ran for the door. As she was coming from Dorothy's room Roger was finally up the stairs.

"Get back here Ray!" Roger shouted as he ran after her.

Not that he would catch her, she ran up the spiral stairs to the kitchen, dashed through the door, ran to the sink and washed her hands, threw on an apron, grabbed a vegetable peeler and sat down in the chair across from Norman and helped him tackle his mountain of vegetables he wanted to make into canned veggies. All before the door swung shut behind her.

"Dear me, Ms Ray, what seems to be the rush?" Norman asked as he one good eye widen in surprise at Rays sudden interest in helping him can vegetables.

"Ray where are you? When I get ahold of you!" Roger ran past the kitchen to the second spiral staircase to the lounge.

"Ah, that would be it I presume?" Ray nodded affirmation while looking a little worn out and panicky.

"Damn it Ray!" Roger burst into the kitchen a few minutes later. "What did you do, where's that kitten?"

"Roger." A small feminine voice spoke from behind him, he turned around to see Dorothy holding the kitten, which had become rather affectionate with her in the few minutes she had it in her possession. "Did you really mean to give me this kitten like Ray said?"

"Huh? Um, yes! Yes I did, I just didn't know when the best time would be is all." Roger acted all confident and gave one of his charming smiles. "You had just seemed rather upset, and I didn't want to make it worse by giving you a new kitten out of the blue."

"Oh Roger, thank you." She held the kitten closer, and it purred even louder for the attention. "Does it have a name yet?"

"No, it's probably best if you name it."

Dorothy looked down at the little purring furball in her arms and thought for a second. "Robin. His name is Robin."

Behind the two Ray and Norman smiled and nodded. All's well that ends well.

We Have Come To Terms

Cute right? You'll see more of the characters I mentioned soon enough. I've been writing this story two plus chapters at a time, so some of the thins reviewers have mentioned I was likely already addressing. I'm writing nine and ten right now for example. And hope to have the Christmas episode out at least by New Years, being realistic here.

Ok are you ready for a translation rant? Well here goes. So in the manga, as some of you know, Beck has a girlfriend, but in the English version she's never given a name. In fact, T-bone and Dove aren't given names in the manga either, unless you read the Japanese only two length epilogue manga Lost Memories. Problem? In the manga T-bone is named Tom, and Dove is named Kun which is a diminutive for boy (he didn't get off easy did he?), but what about the girlfriend? What's her name? Well, it can be translated as Yam, and seeing as this isn't Dragon Ball I wasn't about to keep her name based on food. So I changed it a little, to Yume (which is a real name). I didn't think people would mind that change too much.

By the way, in Lost Memories it gives an explanation as to what happened between volumes 5 and 6 of the manga, and I'm a little sad it was never officially translated. But it probably had to do a lot with copyright and licensing issues (did you know Red Lobster is advertised in the Japanese manga? Not even subtle it's just there as part of the background).