Chapter 69 – Tiger Runs

Kat awoke to bright midmorning sun streaming in her window, illuminating the dust motes playing in the faint breeze from the open glass. Also upon awaking she realized her head was pillowed not on soft feathers but living muscle. It was novel, and not unpleasant, to wake with her head nestled on the pad of muscle between his shoulder and chest, made soft by his relaxed state, his deep breaths raising and lowering her head slightly with rhythmic cadence. She yawned and shifted, intending on falling back to sleep to enjoy the comfortable feelings a while longer, while she could.

"Mornin sleepyhead." At the uncommonly gruff drawl Kat looked up and met a pair of sleepy green eyes with her own.

"Mornin." She answered back, her own voice slightly rusty from lack of use. "What time's it?"

"10am. I woke up a few minutes ago. You sleep ok?"

"Like a baby." Kat stretched, yawned again and sat up reluctantly. She didn't want to leave the cocoon of safety which had been built by Leon's presence in her room. However, she knew that she could not waste the whole day lying in bed either. There was much to be done. "What about you?" She inquired of Leon as she got up and padded to the window of her room barefoot to steal a look at her street, still quiet as early morning despite the advanced hour of their awakening.

"Why'd you dye your hair like that?" Leon asked, sitting up in Kat's bed, studying her slight form from behind, watching as her newly streaked hair fell in tousled strands down her back. It was one of the things that had been bothering him since he'd first seen her at Connor's the evening before. The black blended with the blonde in a striking contrast, but not a flattering one. It was almost animalistic and Leon didn't care for it.

"Because The Tiger has streaked hair." Kat answered, not really wanting to go into these issues, knowing it was going to lead to questions she'd rather not answer. Knowing her answers made her sound slightly unbalanced. "Its temporary dye, it'll wash out in 7-10 shampoos." She quoted the dye packaging.

"Who's The Tiger?" Leon looked puzzled as Kat turned to face him. Kat realized that Leon honestly hadn't figured it out yet. His mental schemas of her would not let him incorporate the new information he had on her into his mind.

"I was." She seemed to consider her answer. "I am. I'm her when I put on that outfit," she pointed to the discarded leather outfit hanging off her closet door where she'd left it from the day before, "and let myself be her." Kat looked like she wasn't really getting her point across but wasn't sure how else to explain it. She shrugged her shoulders in a very feline movement and sighed. She didn't know how else to put it.

"Let yourself be her? I don't really follow you." Leon admitted and watched her pace like a caged tiger from window to dresser over and over again while she played with one of the onyx coloured pieces of her hair.

"I was her, back before, before I gave up being her. I had to kill her to let her go. She's the girl who could handle doing all the things that had to be done to survive life in the gang, to conquer that life and rise to the top of it. I use to love being her but now I loath it. I had to move, redesign the car, give up the motorcycle, start only using bright colours in my hair, start to dress like a normal girl again, and stop running around being a criminal to get her out of my head. It had to be like she died and was gone." Kat shook her head. "But she's the girl who can pull this off. Tiger can do it, Kitten can't. I had to bring her back because only The Tiger can pull this off. The whole thing would just eat me up like I am now. I'd break down and I'd never deal with it."

"You're only you Kat, you aren't two people."

"Oh, that's where you're wrong Leon." She stopped pacing and turned to look at him, square in the eye. No hiding the harsh reality from him this time. No hiding it from herself. Maybe she didn't have true multiple personalities but she had more or less convinced herself she did and that was close enough. But she was ready to acknowledge the fact, to herself and to Leon. He had to know what he was getting himself into. "That's how I coped with it all, with what I did. I split what she did from what I did in my head. I could deal with it because Tiger did all the bad stuff and she was tough enough and evil enough to not only live with doing it but do it and thrive. And as long as Tiger was the one who did it all then I could be upset she did it but I didn't have to be upset with myself over it because it wasn't the real me who did it. It was that other girl who lived in me and did bad things. She just took me along for the ride but the longer I thought of it the easier it became to turn off Kitten when Tiger was out on the prowl."

"I think I understand." Leon answered her. She gave him a small smile. "So, what do you want to do today?" Leon turned the subject. Thinking that his sweet Kitten really could have done the things that were credited to her was hard, no matter how she'd justified it to herself or how she'd managed to rationalize it in her own head. He didn't see her the way she was describing herself now because he'd never seen the part of her that she thought she'd killed off.

Kat didn't know how to answer. There was a lot that she thought had to be done. She didn't really want to do any of it. She shrugged and sat down on the end of the bed. "I don't really know."

"We could just stay here?" Leon cocked an eyebrow at Kat, waiting for her answer. She shook her head.

"I'd like to, but I think we have too much to do for that to happen. I should finish my car."

"Ok," Leon said. "We'll go finish your car then."

"I don't know why I care," Kat started to cry. "It's not like I'll ever see it again after tomorrow anyway."

"Shush, don't say that," Leon said softly as he pulled Kat's crying body against his own. "It's all gonna work out baby. I promise. This time two days from now everyone will be home and things will be back to normal."

"Things are never gonna be the normal we have now again Leon. Things are too changed. I mean, my mom's not dead. That's gonna change things enough. What if she hates me for what I've become?" Kat let out her biggest fear in the whole situation. She'd become what she had because of the very fact she had no mother and no father. Only two brothers who were too far gone themselves to throw stones at her for going the way of lawlessness. Now she had discovered she did have a mother after all. A mother who she figured was going to hate the fact that her little girl had not grown up to dance Giselle to packed houses but who had instead learned to work on race cars and shoot guns, cut drugs and dance in ways that ballet could never teach.

"Your mom could never hate you Kitten. She's still your mom. Nothing that's happened to you has been your fault." Leon continued rubbing her back softly as she cried against his shoulder, holding him for dear life.

"Don't say that!" Kat exclaimed, leaning back. "It was my fault. No one made me go out on drug deals. No one made me learn to shoot better then self defense. No one made me enact my own justice on people. No one made me learn to ride that motorcycle. I mean, do you even know why I wanted it?"

"Because it's faster and more maneuverable then the car?" Leon answered, trying to be practical.

"Because it's faster and easier to shoot from then from inside a car. I was like running death on that bike and now here I am, ready to ride or die again. No one made me do that Leon. The part of me that's still Tiger, despite all I've done to kill her is still looking forward to taking my revenge the old way. Part of me is looking forward to a bloody rampage. So don't try to paint me with the sweet little girl brush. It won't hold water."

"Ok, you've done some bad things. It's human to get off on some of it Kat. You think Me'n Vince didn't get off on what we did to those trucks? The fast, reckless driving, winning in civic up against a transfer truck, getting all that money, the notoriety. Everyone knew about what we were doing but no one could catch us. We were too fast, too furious, too good to be caught. That's a part of human nature. Few people in this world don't like to be the most powerful person they know."

"There's different kinds of powerful though. I should be one of the leading students in some fancy ballet school right now. That's the image my mom's had of me all these years to hold onto Le. A little girl in pink tights with her hair in a formal bun wearing toe shoes dancing to nutcracker suite at Christmas. The wicked girl in black leather with two huge guns is likely to kill her where Sergei failed."

"You did what you thought you had to do to get by Kat. Your mom likely will be shocked but she won't hold it against you. She's been missing you all these years Kitten, not some image of the perfect ballerina. You're strong, smart, and good at what you do. That's all that'll matter to her. I mean if you weren't who you are I doubt you could go up against your step father and come out on top. That little girl you're talking about would be terrified, she wouldn't have a clue what to do. She'd give herself up and that would be the end of her. Your mom wouldn't want to be released at your expense. You're going to be able to give her the gift of her freedom and add to it the gift of yourself to her when you get away too." Kat threw herself back into Leon's arms.

"How is it you know just what to say to me?" She asked, and it came out muffled by his shoulder.

"It's just the truth baby. Come on, let's get a move on. That picky car'a yours aint gonna fix itself."

With that they got up and got dressed, Leon in his clothes from the day before. Kat walked down the stairs ahead of Leon, his hand on her shoulder comfortingly. When they appeared in the door of the living room Kale and Stacy looked up. Stacy looked shocked, Kale looked relieved.

"Hey guys," Kat said, looking from one to the other.

"Mornin Kitten. Sleep well?" Stacy asked, sounding mildly sarcastic.

"Very well thanks. When did you guys get home?"

"Round 2am." Kale answered. "What's wrong with the Skyline?"

"Turbo's screwed up. We're gonna finish fixin it now," Kat replied and started to lead Leon out to the garage by the hand.

"I'm glad I didn't get the life pounded outta me. Your buddy Stacy has one hell of a hook," Leon joked once they were in the garage.

"In a situation like this I hope they trust my judgment," Kat answered and began to take apart the turbo feeding her first three cylinders.

Leon picked up the second turbo and started to disassemble it. Before he went too far he checked the turbine blades for play. As he spun it around he noticed several of the fins showed damage and there was play in the bearing. "I think I found your problem. The fins are broke and the bearing has play. The lag has to have been coming from here." Kat looked herself.

"I'd haveta say you're right. We may as well take your car down to Harry's and see if he has a replacement."

"I'm sure he will. The Garret T4 is a pretty common turbo." Leon said with a wink. It was a well known turbo. Kat wasn't sure how much she agreed with common, but there were enough cars pushing over 500 horsepower in the L.A. area that Harry was likely to keep parts in stock for the turbos on them.

"I'll show you common!" Kat threatened. She wrinkled up her brow in thought and put a hand on her hip. "Wait, didn't I already show you common when I kicked your ass? Or did I dream that one?" Kat giggled then squealed and ran as Leon made a dive for her, intent on making her pay for bringing up his loss again.

"I'll show you an asskicken!" Leon yelled as he chased Kat around her car. He caught her but again got the feeling she let him. He shrugged sanguinely and decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. He started to tickle her in all the places he knew drove her crazy. She tried not to laugh and squirm. She won the battle for the first minute then she started to gasp in laughter and wiggle in an intense need to get away.

"I give," she gasped out.

"Ok then. Let's go to Harry's."

"I need to ask you one favor," Kat admitted and looked at her feet.

"What's that?" Leon narrowed his eyes at Kat, figuring he wasn't going to like what she was gonna request.

"Don't tell him what's going down. He doesn't need to know. Like you say, things'll be fine in a day or two and then he'll just have worried for nothing. There's nothing he can do about it after all."

"That's no big deal. I'll just follow your lead. I know your friends told him you ran away."

"I'll tell him I got bad news but that it's fine now."

"Ok, let's go." Leon headed out of the garage.

They walked over to his house together and got into his car for the ride to Harry's. Harry did have Kat's part, and while he didn't look like he totally bought her story he did buy it enough not to press. He seemed happy to see her and Leon together and not fighting.

They went back to Kat's and put her car back together. By the time it was all reassembled it was 9pm and dark outside. That suited Kat's purposes just fine.

"Now what?" Leon asked and his stomach used that moment to make the fact it was hungry known.

"I guess we should eat." Kat giggled and Leon looked sheepish.

"I suppose I am hungry. I should give the team a quick call to let them know I'm ok and they likely won't seem much of me tonight either." He gave Kat a look asking her to let him know if he was mistaken in that assumption.

"Yeah, you do that, I'll go tell the guys we're goin out then we'll go eat."

"Deal," Leon told her and flipped open his cell phone. Kat went up the stairs into her house and told her friends what she was doing. They didn't look totally happy with it but they kept any protests to themselves.

"We cool?" Kat asked on her return to the garage.

"Yep, ready to go. Let's give the car a workout and see if we caught your problem."

"I thought you'd never ask," Kat laughed as she got into the driver's seat and used her remote to open her garage door.

They took off down the street with a squeal and a cloud of white smoke from the rear wheels. Kat laughingly slid all the corners and sped through the straight-aways. Leon held on for dear life and just tried to enjoy the ride.

They went to a local hamburger joint for dinner because neither of them were in the mood to be on good behavior or using their proper manners. After dinner they got back into the car and Kat looked at Leon.

"What?" Leon somehow knew he didn't like that look.

"I wanna do something now. You down?"

"Down with what?" Leon asked, not sure he wanted to know the answer.

"Just are you down? Yes or no. Spontaneity is not your friend is it?" Kat asked as Leon hesitated to answer.

"Hell, yeah, I'm down." Leon answered, not wanting to be known as the stick in the mud.

"Ok, now we're talkin." Kat started up the car and backed out of the parking spot with a squeal. She headed out to I90.

"Where we goin?" Leon asked, watching the scenery flash by.

"We are gonna find out just how fast this car can go." Kat exclaimed happily, glad to have a chance to cross another item off her 'to do' list.

"You're kidden right?" Leon was scared he already knew the answer. Too fucken fast was his guess.

"Nope, I've always wanted to know." Kat checked her mirrors and sped up. She passed a few cars then had open highway in front of her.

"What if we get caught and go to jail?" Leon normally wouldn't have worried about it for the chance at a wild ride like Kat was offering. But too much was depending on them being available the next night.

"We'll ask for a co-ed cell and have my guys bail us out tomorrow mornin." Kat winked as she sped up even more.

"You're crazy." Leon laughed.

"You told me you hadn't ever known a chick as crazy as me once. You made it sound like it was a good thing."

"I wouldn't have you any other way."

It was all the permission Kat needed from Leon. She put the paddle to the floor and the car learched forward with a growl. The surrounding views started to merge into one flying blur. They occasionally hit a spot of traffic but Kat just dodged in and out of it all, never slowing down or letting up. Leon had a death grip on the door handle but he was otherwise doing ok and Kat was in her element. She was practically laughing she was having such a good time. She had the radio cranked up and she finally hit her 6th gear. She was going 180 miles an hour and she didn't think the car was quite topped out yet.

"How fast we goin?" Leon asked, almost scared to know.

"190!" Kat answered, excited. "And he's still got a bit left to give." She had yet to use her NOS. She went for the little red button.

"You're not gonna use NOS here?" Leon asked, incredulous.

"Of course. How will I know how fast the car can go if I don't use NOS?"

"Guess?" Leon attempted to get Kat to see reason and not go so far as to use her NOS when she was already going so fast.

"Here we go." Kat gave Leon a small amount of verbal warning as she pushed NOS one and launched her car even faster into the night.

Leon was starting to feel his stomach rebel. He didn't like going so fast when he wasn't in control of the situation. "How fast are we going now?" He wasn't sure he even wanted to know.

"My aftermarket gage only goes to 210 but it's just sitting there, so maybe 240?" Kat laughed. She took a very quick glance at Leon and decided she'd had enough fun at his expense. She let off the gas and let the car start to coast down to a more reasonable speed. She thought she heard Leon mutter 'thank god' but she wasn't sure and she didn't want to make him repeat himself if he had.

She'd slowed to around 140 when she saw the dreaded flashing red and blue lights coming up on her tail. "Shit!" She exclaimed.

"What?" Leon asked, concerned about what was wrong.

"I got cops on my six." Kat sighed and put the peddle down again. She knew she'd have to outrun them, and quick, before they called for backup. She got away from them around a curve in the road and then took an off ramp. They cut the lights and coasted around the curve of the ramp blind. They watched the cops speed off chasing a car they'd never catch and drove off the ramp into a small community.

Neither had any idea where they were.

"You know where you're at Kat?" Leon asked.

"Not a sweet clue but we need to get outta here before they figure out we're not just ahead of them anymore."

"No shit." Leon answered and looked around. "There's a sign for the I40, that'll take us home and we won't risk seeing any of the same patrols if we go that way."

"Good thinking." Kat told Leon and put the car in the direction pointed to on the sign. They got on the I40 and took a much more sedate pace then before. They'd managed to get about 40 minutes out of L.A. "We got pretty far out."

"Funny how fast that happened isn't it?" Leon asked sarcastically. Kat only laughed. Leon's cell phone rang. "Yo." He flipped it open. "Oh, hey Lett. What's up?" Kat could only assume that Letty was talking because Leon went silent for a few minutes. "No, I understand, it's no problem." Leon answered whatever question Letty had asked. "Just a sec, I'll ask Kat." Leon turned to Kat. "Letty says that the Team is going to races because it'll just look strange if we don't show. You wanna go?"

"Do you?" Kat asked, really ok with anything that would keep her mind off the coming day and the trials it was going to bring.

"I wouldn't mind, and if we want to leave early it won't look bad since we're newly reconciled." Leon grinned suggestively, making Kat giggle.

"Sure we'll go for a while if you want to." She answered his question.

"We'll be there soon." Leon told Letty over his phone and flipped it closed. Kat drove toward town and a night of racing.