Chance slammed the hood of the Jeep shut with a self-satisfied smirk. Several times in last few weeks, he and Jake had tried to make some headway on the vehicles waiting to be repaired. Each time they had started, however, something had interfered - emergency tows, a SwatKat mission, or each of them just getting lazy. But today, they'd been hard at work for the last six hours, without so much as a break, and Chance was getting surprised how quickly they were getting through all the vehicles. He jumped into the Jeep and drove it back into the lot, then hustled back into the garage.

"Next victim?" he roared.

Jake, who was slowly backing out a motorcycle he had just finished tuning up, grinned. "You're not gonna believe it."

"What?"

Spreading his hands, Jake smiled. "This is the last one."

Chance's eyes got wide. "What! You don't mean - "

"I do mean. We're done."

"Aw-right!" Chance yelled.

Jake accepted the high-five from his partner. "I knew we'd do it one day..."

"And today's the day." A gleam appeared in Chance's eyes. "Y'know what I think?" Jake shook his head, and Chance grinned. "Whaddaya say to a li'l vacation?"

The shadow of a frown played on Jake's brow. "I'm not sure about all that, buddy."

"Aw, c'mon! We'll never get a better opportunity than now! We got a clear garage, the bad guys are leavin' us alone..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," interrupted Jake, putting his hand to his chin. "That's kinda got me worried..."

"Worried!" Chance narrowed his eyes. "You feelin' all right?"

"Yeah..."

"Listen - we've been called out on two...no, three missions the last month an' a half? And all o' those've been easy! Heck, Marc coulda taken care of 'em. One shot and poof - down they went!"

"I know - that's just the problem."

Chance shook his head. "You're losin' me - you sayin' you want them to cause some casualties before we rub 'em out?"

"No, no, no. But doesn't that make you think? What do you think they're up to?"

Trying to play him off, Chance said, "Who cares?"

Jake crossed his arms and looked stubborn. "Me, and I'm asking you - what do you think they're doing right now? Right this second?"

"Heck, I dunno - nothin', I guess."

"Nothing?" echoed Jake. "You think they're taking time off? Visiting the family? Sunning themselves on some beach somewhere?"

"C'mon, Jake, does it matter?"

"Yes!" said Jake sharply. "As long as we're callin' ourselves guardians of the city, this kind of stuff matters."

Chance sighed, then thought. "Well, what do you think they're up to?"

"I'm not sure, either - but it's probably something big...and not very nice."

Rolling his eyes, Chance said, "Thanks, Jake. Always lookin' on the bright side."

"Just trying to be practical."

"Look, usually we got monsters and baddies comin' out our ears. Now, when we finally don't, we can't relax a little?"

"I didn't say we couldn't relax. I just don't like the idea of puttin' our guard down!" Jake shook his head and took a

big breath. "Jeez, buddy, aren't we supposed to be happy right about now?"

Chance stood still for a second, then gave a lopsided grin. "Yeah. Sorry."

"Ditto." They high-fived once more. "So what's up for the rest of the day?"

"Well, I promised Benny I'd whup his tail at pool, if you wanna come kibitz."

"Nah, I'll pass - still gitta call the customers. Plus, you know I'm still behind on my missiles."

"As always."

Jake gave a short laugh. "Yeah, as always. And now that we're caught up, we may have time to paint the TurboKat."

"Bleah."

"I know, but God knows it needs it. I'll take stock, you go play. Tell Benny hey."

Chance took a large swig of his root beer, then wiped his lips on his sleeve. While watching Benny set up his shot, he smiled to himself. Dangit, he thought, I deserve this. We've worked our tails off for almost three years now, and it's nice not to have somethin' breathin' down our necks. And if all this weren't enough, Benny's not playing very good today.

Muffing another relatively easy shot, Benny grumbled something rather impolite, then jerked his thumb over his shoulder towards the table. "All yours. You'll never get that eight ball in, though."

Chance chalked his cue, then bent down over the table, scrutinizing the lie for a minute.

"You memorizing the table or something?" asked Benny, grinning.

"Gimme a second," Chance said. Finally, he picked up his cue stick and tapped the far left corner. "This one," he announced.

"Not this shot," predicted Benny.

"You gotta have faith."

"No, Chance, you gotta have talent!" Benny laughed rather scornfully. "If you make this one, next three rounds are on me."

"Get yer wallet out." Chance took extra time to ready the shot, and finally tapped the cue ball. It struck the eight ball, which caromed off of two of Benny's balls, then crawled its way to the designated pocket, finally dropping in.

"Woo-hoo!" yelped Chance, throwing his arms wide. The tip of his cue stick hit a glass sitting on a table, spilling its remaining contents onto a female kat sitting there.

Chance froze, staring. "Oh, crud, I'm sorry." He expected the woman would start screaming at him, and was surprised when she instead just stared at her soaked dress, then put her head in her hands and started crying.

Pulling up a stool, Chance sat down next to her. "Look, I'm sorry - really." She continued to sit there with her head in her hands. Chance quickly glanced back up at Benny with a confused look. Hesitantly, he put his hand on her shoulder. She shrank a bit from his touch initially, but didn't pull away. "Are...are you OK?" The female kat slowly nodded, but didn't take her hands off her face. "Could...could I buy you another drink or somethin'?"

Finally, the she-kat moved her hands away from her face. Wiping her eyes with the back of her wrist, she sniffed and said, "You don't have to do that."

"No, it's cool. Besides - Benny here's buyin', anyway."

Benny put a look of fake offense on his face. "Hey, now!"

"You said next three rounds, compadre. Cough up." Chance put on a small smile, then slowly held out his hand to the woman. "Name's Chance. Chance Furlong."

Shyly, she took his hand. "Beverly Watson."

"Hey-a. This's Benny Rodriguez." Benny half-saluted, and Chance went on. "You sure you're OK?"

"Oh. Yeah. It wasn't...this...really," Beverly said, picking up the glass. "It...just hasn't been a good day."

Two kats walked up. "You guys gonna yabber or play?"

Chance glanced at Benny, who shook his head. "They way I've been playing? Forget it."

Chance nodded, grabbed the cue stick close to the tip, and handed it to one of the kats standing in front of them. "All yours."

"Thanks." They began setting up for their game.

"Whatcha drinkin'?" Benny asked Beverly.

"Gin and tonic."

"Regular for me," added Chance.

"Duh." Benny went to the bar to get the drinks.

Chance and Beverly sat in uncomfortable silence for a bit, watching the new pool players in order to avoid eye contact. Despite not looking directly at her, Chance sized her up. She was quite small - she only barely reached his chin. She was a tabby kat, and her dress was extremely plain, probably chosen to keep her from standing out. Due to its sheer plainness,

however, it probably had the opposite effect on most kats. She was also very quiet. Chance, who was more used to loud and boistrious she-kats, decided she wasn't his type - but to be honest, he thought, since he had become a SwatKat three years back, he wasn't sure he even had a type any more - his girlfriends had been few, and their relationships brief.

Finally, Chance said, "Um, sorry you're havin' such a cruddy day."

Beverly looked startled. "It's not your fault."

"Well, yeah, I know, but I'm actually having a really good day - my first in a long time, y'know?"

"Well, what's wrong with that?"

"Nothin'. But I feel all guilty having a great day when yours is going so cruddy."

Beverly looked down at her lap. "Now I'm messing up your perfect day."

Chance shook his head. "You're not messing it up."

Beverly glanced up for a second. "You...you sure?"

Grinning, he said, "Not at all." Beverly ducked her head and smiled a bit. Chance went on. "You wanna tell me what's wrong with yer day?" Her smile disappeared, and Chance quickly added, "You don't hafta."

Sighing, Beverly said, "Oh...it's nothing, I guess. I...I was supposed to meet my boyfriend here." Chance felt a very small twinge at the word "boyfriend", but in the back of his mind, waved it away. Beverly went on. "But he didn't show up."

Chance tried to will himself into feeling more concern than he actually did. "Maybe he got held up somewhere. Didja call him?"

Beverly shook her head, and looked close to tears. "It really doesn't matter."

"Whadaya mean? Sure it matters."

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Beverly said, "He...he's not the most reliable guy..." She tapered off, and tried to smile.

Chance frowned. "You thinkin' he stood ya up?"

Shrugging in an attempt to appear non-chalant, Beverly said, "It wouldn't be the first time."

"Well, that ain't right." Chance looked up as Benny came back to the table clumsily carrying three drinks. "Thanks. Listen, what were you and your...boyfriend gonna do? Just get some drinks?"

"N-no, we were going to see a movie, have dinner, you know..."

"Well...if you wanna," Chance quickly interjected, hands held up, "I think Benny 'n' me chould make good on that - if you think us two can fill in for 'im."

"Wh-" Beverly sat with her mouth half-open, not knowing what to say.

Chance grinned, then turned to Benny. "You up for a night on the town?"

"Love to, amigo, but not all of us are caught up at work."

Shrugging, Chance turned back to Beverly. "Well, it's down to just me, I guess - but the offer's still good."

"I...don't know..."

"If you'd rather not, that's OK..."

"No, I do, it's just...well, Peter isn't..." Beverly waited for Chance to say something, but he didn't. Finally, she said, "Well, Peter can look after himself for one night, I guess." She smiled up at Chance.

"That's th' way, Beverly!"

Beverly smiled larger. "Just Bev."