Chapter 10
"When are you going to talk to her? You know you have to!" Mistoffelees said with hint of irritation in his voice. His kittens were asleep in another part of his and Victoria's den. Tugger was leaning against a wall, arms folded, staring at the ground.
"I…I can't! She doesn't want to talk to me and that's for sure! So, why bother?"
"How would you know? Wasn't she the same queen that actually got your attention, years ago? She would still talk to you, Tugger, for Heaviside sakes! She actually liked you!" Misto's words caused the Maine Coon to glance up at him. He now started to feel a tinge of guilt, and it reminded him of when Bombalurina left the tribe for Macavity (Read last chapter of Forbidden Romance for more on what happened with Tugger). "And Tugger, let me ask you one more thing. Do you like her?"
Tugger's face went blank. He once again looked down, and sighed. After a long moment, he finally nodded, with a sad silence. The tuxedoed tom nodded and grinned with understanding. Knowing that his friend's stubbornness had weakened, he quietly told him, "Go talk to her," Tugger nodded again, and quietly went outside. It had been 2 days since Macavity had gone up to the Heaviside Layer, and everything was back to normal. Munkustrap was back at his post as the Jellicle Leader, and Demeter had lost her paranoia. He was proud of Alonzo for finally settling down with a mate, though he selfishly didn't think about himself having one. As he walked past the black and white tom's den, he could hear some light growls and lustful meows coming from the old refrigerator, which caused the Maine Coon to grin. Good ol' Lonzo was getting biz-zay with Cassie, he thought to himself as he went to Munku's den, where he knew Bombalurina was. He spent a long moment swallowing his nerve before he finally knocked on the side of the snug wooden crate.
"Yes?" The red queen's voice responded from the inside.
"Yeah…um…it's Tugger," he responded, tongue-tied, "Could I…uh…could I come in?"
"Sure, come on in," she responded with a sad tone in her voice. Slowly, he entered. He saw Bombi sitting beside Jendangen's "crib", where the little kitten was sleeping. The red queen's eyes were red-rimmed, like she had been crying for a bit and no wonder. For the last two days, it seemed to Bombalurina that she had done almost nothing but cry. She always kept trying to reassure herself that she would be able to move on, but it hurt so much. Every time she would try to sleep she would have nightmares of Mackey dying in so many ways.
First it was him getting swept away by a wave before she could even react. Then it was him struggling to swim in a lake, her jumping in and swimming to him, trying to save him, but just as they were at an arm's reach away, he would sink down to the bottom, into eternity. There were many others, too many, but all of them always brought new tears to her eyes, and had her rudely awakened, fur soaked with sweat, her breathing shallow. Demeter and Munkustrap were doing all they could to comfort her and help her, but it wasn't working. The nightmares were still there, every time she closed her eyes.
"Are you all right?" Tugger's voice broke through her thoughts like the way soothing vapors would break up a cold. The red queen shook her head.
"No, I am not all right. I want to be alone right now," She responded and she turned away from the tom standing in the doorway. Tugger refused to believe it.
"I don't think so," He tried to face her, but every time, she turned away, "Please Bombi, talk to me. I want to talk to you."
"What about?"
"About Macavity, about us…"
Bombalurina remained stubborn, "NO! I don't want to talk about it!"
"You can't hold this in, please…"
"NO!"
"Bombi!" Tugger put a paw on her shoulder. The warm, stern feel caused a new wave of tears to form, and this time, she couldn't hold them in. On instinct, she turned to him and buried her face into his chest, sobbing loudly without stop.
"Oh, why did he have to leave? Leave me and the kittens behind, why? Oh Mackey, why?" she shouted in anguish and grief. Tugger felt a sense of awkwardness, but he swallowed his composure enough to give her a comforting hug. She continued her grieving, her tears soaking his fur. After a long while, she seemed to settle down, but now she kept mumbling, "Let me die, let me die. Oh, Everlasting Cat, let me die now! I can't live without him!"
"Now how can you be sure of that? You have been able to live without him before!"
"But I loved him! And I won't love another tom! He was my true love!"
The Maine Coon nodded, "I can't deny that, but…there is another tom that still has a place in his heart for you…me," Right after he said that, he start mentally cursing himself. Why did he just say that? What the hell was he thinking! Bombalurina glanced at him, amazed.
"You…you actually…liked me? Maybe even loved me?"
Tugger let out a long, slow sigh and nodded, figuring he might be as frank with her as he can, "Yes, I did. I didn't realize it until after you left the tribe for him. I was…too proud to realize it."
"What happened then?"
He gave a grim smirk, as if his ego had been battered, "I got some sense knocked into me, and I got the scars to prove it," he said, referring to some light scars on his neck that came from when he and Alonzo got into a fight about who was responsible for Bombi leaving the tribe, "I'll be honest when I say that there were many time I was scared about you. So many times I felt that he had abandoned you to fend for yourself. Honestly, Bombi, I really cared about you! And now looking back, I know that you cared about me too. I know, I was too stubborn to acknowledge it, and you, desperate for love, went to him, and the rest is history. But hear me when I say this, if I had a chance to rewind time, and do the last few years all over again, I would've started something with you," After he finished, he felt a great sense of release, like everything he had held in was finally gone. It was a great feeling and it was made better by what the red queen said next.
"Are you being truly honest about it? Do you really have feelings for me?" Her question was verbally unanswered, but she could tell by gazing into his eyes that he was indeed honest, "Years ago, I would've given away everything I had for you to say that," She went silent for a moment before nodding to a mental inquiry in her mind, "Tugger, I'll be honest myself when I ask this, do you think you could become almost like a surrogate father for my kittens? They need a daddy, that much I do know, and…well, maybe someday, I'll want to have the love of a tom, but not right now."
Tugger nodded, "Of course I will. I understand the situation you are in, and I promise I will change for the better, for you and your kittens. Be gentle in the sense that it may be hard for me to change, but I will try."
"That's exactly what I wanted to hear," Bombi gently embraced him once again, and Tugger returned the hug. There was now nothing more between them than good friends, but maybe, just maybe, something more could happen. Something they had always somewhat envisioned, but never fully believed it would happen. All of a sudden, Bombalurina spoke again, "Tugger, thank you," With that, she suddenly gave him a light kiss on the check, which caused him to blush, but he covered it with a tender smile, and kept holding her.
Through a knothole, Munkustrap, Demeter, and Mistoffelees all watched them with smiles on their faces. Life was now going to return to normal much more now. Peace had returned, and life as everyone in the Jellicle Tribe remembered was back. They had just survived the absolute worse of tyranny, and they know knew that this tribe was going to stay for a long, long time.
Epilogue
Many months passed before Bombalurina was able to live in her own den, but nobody ever complained about it. Rum Tum Tugger indeed became the new father for Sophline and Jendangen, and soon after she moved out of Demeter and Munkustrap's den, Bombalurina and Tugger declared their matrimony. While they themselves never had any kittens of their own, Tugger treated both of his adoptive kittens as his own, and both of them accepted him as their new father. He managed to erase his free-swinging bachelor ways, but he never lost his immaturity, and while it did result in scolding from Bombi and Munkustrap, it was a sure sign that some things never change.
Jemina successively gave birth to her kitten, a grey and brown tom named Tyrus, but Rumpleteazer suffered a miscarriage, and died soon after due to complications. Some claimed that she did it herself, as an abortion attempt, but Mungojerrie confirmed that it happened when she accidentally fell out of bed one night. Jellylorum was sent up to the Heaviside Layer the following year, and Asparagus the year after.
Sophline came of age and she would have many tom friends, but she never settled down with a mate. Jendangen grew up, and had a mate named Syria, Victoria's last kitten, and when Munkustrap grew too old, took over as first the Jellicle protector, than leader. The tribe was never again in serious danger, and life became peaceful and happy again.
WHEW! I finally finished! I rewrote this chapter 8 times before I finally got what I wanted. I was going to have Tugger give a long rambling about how he felt after Deuteronomy went up to his reward, but that seemed like wandering away from the story. I may write a sequel to this, starring Jendangen, Macavity's son, as he finally gets told about his father's other life, and goes through the responsibilities of becoming leader. I'm still not sure though. For now, I will be in a slow creative process, working on many stories in the upcoming weeks and months. Plus, I also got a new job, starting in May, and I might not be able to have as much free writing time as I usually do.
I may soon continue my unfinished Macavity Chronicles, otherwise I might write my next CATS fanfic, A Rose Blooms for Two, or maybe even do a humor story, Americanized Jellicles. For now, enjoy the last chapter of Last Redemption, and remember, if you enjoyed reading it half as much as I enjoyed writing it, than I enjoyed it twice as much as you! LOL
Keep readin' and writin'!
