Chapter Four

"Where could she be?" Bomba whined, as they searched through yet another warehouse. Her face clearly showed her concern for her missing sister, but Alonzo didn't know what he could do to help her feel better. He felt terrible that their sister had been kitnapped too.

"I don't know, but I know we'll find her," Lonzo assured his sister. Bomba forced a smile.

"Let's just keep lookin'," Skimble urged them. The siblings nodded, and the three continued to look in the rooms of the warehouses.

"Wait..." Lonzo said suddenly. They paused and grew silent, and could barely hear voices in the next room over. One voice, a low, male voice, was obviously Macavity's, but the other was so quiet that they couldn't distinguish who it was. Who ever it was, they were pleading with Macavity. "We should help them, even if it isn't Demi," Lonzo whispered. Skimble and Bomba both nodded gravely, and the three felines set off once more.

They hurried to the next room, and Skimble and Lonzo knocked the door (which was quite weak on its hinges, being old and abandoned) into the room. They were quite startled to see that it was Demi they had rescued.

Macavity was holding her in his arms, but at the sight of them, dropped her on the floor and ran. He hadn't expected them to get away from his mercenary so quickly. It had caught him off guard, and they were very thankful for that.

Demi looked very shaken as she sat up. Bomba rushed to her side, and helped her to her feet. "Are you alright, Demi?" she asked hurriedly. Demi nodded slightly as she rose to her feet.

"Please," she murmured, "Let's leave. I don't like it here... Macavity could come back." Lonzo nodded to his sister almost numbly. They left Macavity's darkened lair in utter silence and as quickly as they could. Eerily, they encountered no one as they left. Perhaps Macavity had some odd plan in store for them. They tried not to think about it.

Munkustrap and Cugara were still fighting viciously when Cugara noticed the other Jellicles approaching from a distance away. She growled at her brother and in one swift movement, vanished into the shadows of the warehouse. Munkustrap stood, quite thoroughly confused, for a moment, before he heard the footsteps of his fellow Jellicles approaching. He whirled around, and was relieved to find Demi with them, being carried by Alonzo.

Bomba was smiling, obviously pleased. "She's okay," she grinned as they neared the silver tabby tom. "Let's go home." Munku nodded.

"Yes," agreed Skimble. It was apparent that the entire ordeal had had some more sinister plan that hadn't worked out. "Let's get goin' before Macavity comes back with some of 'is rats." The other Jellicles nodded, and they all hurried off through the streets of London .

A short while later, they arrived back at the Junkyard fence. The rather small cats slipped through the hole near the bottom of the fence. It was by that time that Demi was not stunned too much to walk any longer. However, she did stare at the ground the entire time she was walking with them, too ashamed to say a word to anyone.

Lonzo and Bomba didn't know what to do. Demi was obviously upset, but they had no idea what they could do to help. "Maybe Jennyanydots can help," Lonzo suggested quietly to his sister. Bomba shrugged.

"I don't know," she replied, "Demi's not too fond of Jenny. She thinks she doesn't care about her as much as she cares about the rest of us." Lonzo furrowed his brow in thought. Maybe Cassie or her mother would know what to do. He knew Exotica, Cassie's mother, had had experience with Macavity before, so she might be able to help them.

"I have an idea, Bomba," he told her, "So I'll be right back," and he slipped away between two piles of human junk. Bomba watched her brother disappear into the shadows beyond the junk pile, and then looked sadly at her sister, who was kneeling on the ground now, still staring at the ground. I hope your idea helps, Lonzo, she thought, staring into the shadows he had vanished into.

Munku appeared next to her. He had been watching Demi with an almost mournful look in his dark eyes. "Where'd Lonzo go off to?" he whispered.

"He said he had an idea," Bomba replied, "Although he didn't elaborate on it to me." Munku nodded understandingly.

"I hope whatever it is, it helps," Munku said, looking at Demi again. She had now curled up into a ball and was apparently sleeping (or, at any rate, trying to sleep).

"Me too," Bomba murmured. By this time, Skimble had vanished, most likely to find Jennyanydots, to see what she could do if Demi had any injuries, although it looked to Bomba and Munku that she just wanted to sleep.

The sun was beginning to rise on the horizon. Bomba watched it sadly, and wondered what Alonzo was doing.

"Cassie?" Lonzo cried out as he approached the place he had left Cassie when he felt something was wrong. There was no sign of the dark cream queen. "Cassie? Where are you?" He sniffed the air, and her scent was obvious.

"Hey Lonzo!" she popped out of no where, with her mother at her heels, almost as if she had known that he wanted to talk to Exi. She noted the worried expression on his face immediately. "What's wrong?" She put her arms about his waist, and hugged him.

"I'm worried about Demi," he told her after a moment's pause. Cassie's dark eyes grew even darker with concern. Demi had always been one of her closer friends.

"What's wrong with her? Is she okay? Is that why you left without waking me last night?" Cassie was now full of both questions and worry. "Do you need my help at all?"

"Well..." Lonzo replied, trying to remember all of her questions so that he could answer them. "Demi was kitnapped by Macavity last night. We got her back okay, but we think he might have done something to her. She's hasn't really said anything, but we don't know for sure. She seems to be okay, but she seems tired and upset at the same time. Yes, that is why I left you last night. I sensed something was wrong. It turns out I was too late anyway, though." He paused, a sad look flashing through his eyes.

"It isn't your fault, Lonzo," Cassie assured him, hugging him. "Do you want Mother and me to help you? You know she has, er, experience, in these matters." Exotica looked at the ground, and looked furious at her daughter, though it was true. Exotica had had a fling with Macavity when she was still too young to have kittens. She knew how to deal with the torment he gave queens he wanted.

"You want me to help her?" Exotica's smooth alto voice drifted past the two felines. "I'm willing to do anything to help... I've dealt with this in the past." Lonzo nodded, leaning against Cassie, after realizing that Exi was okay with their relationship.

"Would you please, Exi? I'm sure Demi'd appreciate it, knowing that she's not alone," Lonzo replied, quite happier than he had been when he set out to find Exi and her daughter.

Exotica smiled warmly at the gold, black and white tom. "I'll do what I can, but I think it would be best if I waited until the morning is full before I tried to talk to her. In the meantime, I think it would be wise if I left you two lovers to yourselves..." Saying nothing more, Exotica vanished into the shrinking shadows.

Cassie grinned sleepily at Lonzo, and laid her head gently against his furry shoulder. Soft purring emanated from her chest, and she was soon dozing off next to him. Lonzo watched her sleep for a while, before realizing that he too was dozing into a peaceful sleep once more.

Exotica found Demeter at the dawn's first light. As she predicted, Demeter was awake already, although her sister and Munkustrap were asleep nearby. Demi was still curled in a ball, not wanting to break away from her warm sleeping position.

"Demeter?" Exi half-whispered at Demi, not entirely sure that she was awake, even though she thoroughly trusted her second sight. The golden queen's eyes flared open, her reddish head shot into the air, and she was instantly out of her curled up position and upon her feet, ignoring the rain that was falling softly around her.

"Who's there?" she hissed worriedly, her eyes darting from shadow to shadow, searching for the caller. Exi stepped forward, and Demi visibly relaxed at the sight of a familiar face. She exhaled as though she were very relieved. Exi smiled at her warmly.

"Alonzo wanted me to talk to you." She was sure to choose her words carefully, knowing that Demi might be offended that Lonzo had told someone.

Demi frowned, and furrowed her brow. She was, in a way, mad at Lonzo for telling someone who she didn't feel needed to know about her problems. However, she was glad that someone cared. "What do you want to talk to me about?" she ventured, wondering with caution what Exotica would ever want to talk with her about.

"Macavity."

Demeter bristled and turned away from her questioner. "What do you want me to say?" She grew cold toward the brown queen, and Exi wondered what Macavity had done to Demi that made her so cold about it. Demi trembled, and Exi approached her, concern showing on her delicate, ebony features.

"What did he do to you?" she inquired. "Whatever it was, I can probably relate." Demi seemed surprised. She turned to face the slender brown queen, so slowly it was almost as if she were cemented down.

"What?" she asked, outraged by the very idea that anyone would want to hurt gentle, sweet Exotica. "He hurt you? How? Why?"

"As for your last question, I have no idea. The second? He raped me, and is Cassandra's father. I suppose that that answers your first question as well." Exi seemed not in the least embarrassed about what had happened to her.

"How did you get past it?" Demi asked, desperate for the answer. She knew she couldn't continue blaming herself for what Macavity had done to her, like she had spent the previous night doing.

Exi smiled again. "I told myself that if I wasn't something special, why would he have done something like that? Because he knew I was too good for the likes of him. He would never be able to win someone like me, so he had to steal me."

"It worked?" Demi said, surprised. "I would never be able to convince myself of something like that." Exi noticed that Demi wasn't being so uptight any longer. She smiled at the thought, knowing that she was doing something good.

"I'll bet you can," Exi told her, "But I think you just need some help. And I think your family, and Munkustrap," she added meaningfully, "will give you all the help you need." With that said, the bronze coloured queen seemed to melt into the shadows.

Demeter watched her go, pondering what she had been told.

When Lonzo and Cassie awoke sometime in the early hours of the next day, a light drizzle had begun around them, but they both sensed that it would soon worsen into a downpour. Cassie shivered, and Lonzo put an arm around her slender, bronze coloured shoulders. Cassie subtly purred to him, and they went off to find something to eat.

Lonzo sniffed the air, searching it for the scent of a rat or something else that would be big enough for them to share as a meal. Both of the cats suddenly looked to their right, having both caught the lingering scent of a small rat. Cassie hunkered down into the pouncing position, and Lonzo circled around to the other side for an ambush on their potential meal, and did the same as Cassie.

Both of the cats were superb hunters, and figured that catching a rat would be child's play for them. And it was. The rat led them in winding circles before they caught it.

A few minutes later, they returned to the still Junkyard with their freshly caught meal. They ate it in complete silence, as neither one knew what to say to the other. Cassie nuzzled Lonzo, and the two of them decided that they had very little need for words at all.

"This romance is truly magical," murmured Cassie, and Lonzo thoroughly agreed.

"I've finally found someone who may be right for me," Lonzo told her, surprised that he was relating his feelings to her. Yet, it seemed natural for him to do so. Cassie seemed to be a part of him that had been missing since he was born.

"Really?" asked Cassie, almost seeming surprised herself. She smiled at Lonzo, and felt tears of happiness prick in her golden eyes. Lonzo hugged her, and she cried against him, but her tears were not of sadness.

"Yes," Lonzo told her, resting his head against her shoulder. He, too, found himself purring, and utterly at peace. This felt like it was truly meant to be.

There was silence between them for several minutes. Then, they both looked up. "Can we get out of the rain?" Then, they started laughing. They'd both said it at the same time.

"C'mon," Lonzo proposed, "Let's see if anyone's in that old oven." Cassie nodded her agreement, and they set off to check for other cats, and see if they were welcome to share the space if there were other cats there.

However, they did not have to worry about sharing the space in the old oven, because they found that no one was there already. Inside, it was dry, and there was a blanket spread across the metal floor of it. The sound of the rain clanging against the top of the oven was slightly annoying at first, but the two cats got used to it.

They took turns shaking out their fur outside, under the protection of a little overhang of junk that was stacked above the old oven. Then, thoroughly dry, they laid down together to sleep away the storm.

"Lonzo?" Cassie's voice drifted through the tom's head before he had fallen asleep. He propped himself up on his paws.

"What?" he tried not to let her know that he had almost been asleep, and that she had awakened him. He hadn't appreciated being woken up, but he didn't want to hurt Cassie's feelings either.

"Why me?" Her eyes glistened in the semi-darkness of the oven interior. Lonzo's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. Why was she asking such a question.

"I don't know," Lonzo replied honestly. "Because you're beautiful, and you're kind, and, I don't know. There's just a lot to like about you." Cassie smiled warmly. "Now, my turn," Lonzo said with a grin a moment later. "Why me, Cassie?"

Cassie giggled a bit and shrugged her slender shoulders. "I don't know, either, love. Let's go to sleep." And they did.