Point One – Miss Manx

"Do not bring her up!"

B–Squad and Boom winced at Cruger's ferocity but stayed strong. Z looked up at him with patient eyes. "Please, sir, this isn't right. At least let us speak."

"I said no, and the next one to mention her or my wife will join Miss Manx in unemployment!" Cruger's back remained turned to them.

"Then I quit!"

At this, Cruger turned. Boom stood, looking on the verge of tears. "What was that?"

"If Kat's not here then I won't be either, effective immediately," Boom frowned at Cruger, face wrought with resentment. He stormed out, quickly followed by B–Squad. "I'm not gonna change my mind, guys."

"We know, I wouldn't either, honestly, I'd quit if I could, but I can't," Bridge rambled on for only a moment. "Before you quit, can you find where Kat has gone? I can't track her aura through the city, but maybe you can find her with the SPD satellite? I'm going to find her and make her tell us what's going on."

The rest of B–Squad seemed on board, and Boom nodded. "Right, I can do that. Let's see...she's in the bay district, at an apartment building."

"The bay district, that's an expensive place, is she visiting a friend?" Jack frowned.

"Nope, an apartment was just bought there under the name Manx, Katherine. Kat's fine, I mean, she's been working for, like, a hundred years or more, remember?" Boom turned to B–Squad with only half of his normal, frivolous smile. "Why would Kat let Cruger fire her like that? She's never been afraid to stand up to him before."

"Guys, I'm telling you, something was up." Bridge caught their attention. "I read the auras after everything went down. I think something happened with Missus Cruger that Kat wasn't telling him about. I couldn't read her thoughts, though, they were too...jumbled."

"Okay, so we go to Kat and ask her what happened," Z nodded to Jack.

"If she wouldn't tell Cruger why would she tell us?" Sky asked logically.

"The only reason she'd keep something from him would be to protect him, so she has nothing to lose," Syd argued to Sky's left.

"Okay, her apartment is only ten minutes from here." Boom lead the rangers with him out of the lab. "We'll take my car. I don't think Cruger would be happy to find out we were taking the delta runners to visit Kat...not that the bastard deserves any consideration."

Everyone exchanged sympathetic looks as Boom brooded over the loss of Kat. They knew she was like a mother or big sister to him, and Boom was never too happy when Kat was messed with. Bridge seconded the notion, sharing a similar relationship with her, especially considering how much time he spent in the lab.

They arrived at a regular looking, somewhat beat up car sitting in the far corner of the hangar. Boom clicked it open and sighed. "Kat souped it up for me after I bought it for visiting my parents more. The engine's top of the line."

Syd and Z looked at him with gentle smiles, patting his shoulders.

"This is a standard five person car, Boom, it's illegal for us all to pile in here," Sky frowned deeply.

"Just get in," Jack smirked, shoving Sky in the car and getting in behind him.

"Everybody in?" Boom asked. His question was answered by grumbling from Z, squished against Syd, who was sandwiched against Sky, who was pressed against Jack. "Okay, let's go."

"As I was saying, Kat wouldn't say what happened, but I also noticed her right hand was bleeding." Bridge said as he twisted around in his seat to address the other rangers. "It looked like a scratch mark."

"You think Kat fought Missus Cruger?" Z looked disbelieving at best.

"A Kat...cat–dog...girl fight?" Jack tried to work out in a vaguely Bridge way.

"It was a pretty deep looking claw mark," Bridge sighed unhappily.

"Why would Missus Cruger hurt Kat, though?" Sky asked after getting Syd's hair away from his mouth.

"Maybe she was jealous," Syd suggest in a strained voice, "I mean, Cruger and Kat are pretty close; well...were."

"I can't see her freaking out over that though. Do you think she just...left?" Z's question hung in the air heavily, making everyone fall silent. It was a dark suggestion but completely viable. "I mean, I know it's not cool, but it could happen. She was coming back after a hell of a lot, I'd need time to adjust, I imagine. Maybe Missus C. just wasn't adjusting to life on Earth. Wasn't she being held captive for, like, forty years?"

"Yeah, I guess I'd have a pretty hard time comin' back from that and just playing happy little house at base," Jack noted.

"Still, would she really leave just because of that? There must have been more," Sky tried to add.

"Maybe it's everything together," Bridge offered.

"Guys, we're here," Boom spoke up.

The group of adolescents walked up to the condo complex in awe. The building was white marble in foyer with whitewash stone walls. It looked more like a very private hotel than an apartment complex. Stepping into the foyer, they were met by two doormen and a blue skinned alien at the front desk.

"Excuse me," Sky began, not wanted to address it as sir or ma'am until he was sure. "We're looking for Miss Katherine Manx."

"Miss Manx has asked only certain people be permitted to see her," the alien responded with a voice that did nothing to suggest if it was a sir or ma'am.

"It's okay, Teo, I'll take them up."

The group turned to see Kat. She wore a flowing black skirt and white blouse, looking an awful lot like her lab coat. Her boots were black and she wore the gold bracelet around her left wrist, drawing attention from the bandaged right one. Her normally perfectly corkscrewed ringlets were left hanging looser around her, still bouncy, but resting on top of her shoulders. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We came for answers—"

"To visit you—"

"To ask—"

"I quit—"

Kat held up her hand, silencing her kids. Looking from Z, on the left, to Boom, on the right, she sighed. "Okay, you're here, you might as well come."

The six followed Kat to the stairs, no one wanting to point out that there was an elevator. Before continuing she turned to Bridge, who spoke: "Kat, they were worried, I—"

"Here," Kat said flatly, handing Bridge, Jack and Sky her bags of groceries. They were by no means heavy, and especially nothing she couldn't handle. Still, though, they were there, they might has well have made themselves useful. It was two bags of canned tuna, two things of mayo, three loaves bread and two cartons of milk. "So, you guys really came here in the middle of the day just to visit me?"

"Of course—"

"No—"

Sky and Jack scowled at each other before Sky rephrased. "We wanted to visit you, Kat, but to find out what's going on. We couldn't believe that Commander Cruger fired you."

"Well, he did, and I'm not going to talk about it," Kat answered evenly.

"I quit," Boom spoke quietly again, from the back of the group.

"I'm going to have a word with you about that, Boom," Kat turned sternly, continuing up the steps. She lived on the top floor – eight flights of stairs up – but she liked the exercise.

"Come on, Kat, we're worried," Syd puffed, wondering why they couldn't have taken the elevators.

"I appreciate the concern, kids, but I'm fine," Kat didn't look at them this time, feeling her eyes water. This had easily been the second worst day of her life and she really just wanted it to end.

"Kat, is there just tuna in here?" Jack asked, somewhat breaking through the tense air.

"Yep," she responded plainly. Finally, they reached her floor. "Okay, here we are."

"Whoa," the group gazed at Kat's lavish apartment. It was huge, and completely decadent. There was a sunken in living room, fully furnished on top of a rich red carpet. The white marble floors extended up to the kitchenette, dining area and balcony french doors. In the other direction they lead to the master bedroom, with its own bathroom, and guest bathroom.

"Kat, this place is gorgeous," Syd breathed, fully aware of what the lap of luxury had to offer. "What is this costing you?"

"Nothing substantial," Kat muttered to herself. She had been getting paychecks for longer than three times their respective ages, she was quite set to pay a couple thousand in rent and expenses. "Besides, I won't be here for too long."

"What do you mean?" Brdige frowned as he handed his bag of groceries to un unhappy Jack.

"I mean, once I have a new job, I'll be leaving. I've already contacted SPD Headquarters and Birdy was only too happy to have me back. I'd be provided with living conditions, still have access to a lab on the odd occasion and I could still help defend the galaxy. That's all I need." Kat tried to speak casually, as if it weren't the hardest call she had ever had to make in her life. Really, she hated the idea of going back there. It was her only option, though. She couldn't just lounge around a luxury apartment for the rest of her life (even if she wanted to, she'd outlive her landlord by centuries).

"You can't leave," Bridge stepped forward.

"It's done, Bridge. All I have to do is sign the hard copies of the documents and it will be finalized," Kat fibbed, considering that she could have given them a digital signature, but postponed for deliberation time.

"Kat, what really happened?" Sky asked gently, also handing off his bag of groceries to a disgruntled Jack.

Kat looked at the group, all worried. "All of you, sit."

The group obeyed and sat on the couch in the sunken living area. Kat followed them, leaning against a chair facing them.

"Isinia left."

"We know, but why?" Bridge asked with an edge in his voice.

"That's it, Bridge, she just left. I asked her myself and she said that she couldn't stay at base, with Doggie. It was destroying the happy memories of their marriage and it was only going to deteriorate from there." Kat scratched her forehead in stress.

"So, she just took a bag and wasn't even going to tell DC?" Z asked, cringing.

"Pretty much; I tried to stop her and," Kat waved her bandaged hand, which was showing signs of bleeding through. Cursing quietly she unwrapped it, revealing two nasty looking claw marks deep in her skin; "oh, dammit."

"Kat, that looks pretty bad," Syd frowned, eyeing the angry red of the scratch marks.

Bridge squinted, "that's a nasty open wound, Kat."

"I know, I know," she muttered, going for new gauze. "I disinfected it but Sirian claws have a coating to them that can poison any non–Sirian skin it pierces."

"Poison?" Jack looked alarmed. "You have to see a doctor, Kat."

"I am a doctor, technically; I chose to go with engineering over medicine as my major. Anyway, there's nothing I can do about it. The only thing that will cure it is the saliva of a Sirian," Kat muttered to herself as she wrapped her hand carefully. "I can only ride it out."

"If it can kill you this is not going to be argued over," Sky holds out a firm hand.

"It's not in your control, Sky, and I'm not going to die from it. My blood can counteract any foreign substance that gets into my system, including this. I might be sick for a couple days, but that's it." What Kat wasn't telling them was that, while she would survive, it would be a close call. She would get a dangerously high fever, have violent bouts of vomiting and lose a lot of blood in it. The coughing from her lungs fighting the poison would take its toll on her vascular system and she wouldn't be able to move for a few days. She would survive, though. "Anyway, there's nothing more to it, and I am not going back to the command center."

"Kat, I know you're both stubborn, you can't just not tell Commander Cruger that his wife left him," Bridge tried to argue logically. "Taking the blame for her isn't solving anything."

"Bridge, how do you propose I tell me best friend that his wife up and left him because she's too numb to feel anything? How do you think I should tell him that she said that she doesn't love him anymore? I'd love to know if you have an idea on how I should even begin to approach this," Kat frowned and shifted her weight on her hips. "There's nothing anyone can do."

B–Squad sat, helpless, looking at Kat. Jack stood, "there has to be something we can do!"

"There isn't," Kat came very close to snapping at him. "Doggie hates me, I'm going to HQ to work and that is the end of the story."

"What about that chip you took from security?" Bridge intervened as Kat tried to walk away from them. "It has the security footage of your fight, doesn't it? That's why you took it?"

"Yes," Kat admitted, meeting Bridge's eyes easily, "and it's staying here with me."

"Kat," Boom tried to speak, but when she turned he knew that look in her eyes.

"Boom, you are going to go back there and take back your resignation, or so help me Felia I will shut down every piece of technology you own," Kat pointed at him sternly.

"I need you there, Kat," Boom admitted pitifully. "I can't do anything without you."

Kat ruffled Boom's hair, "you'll be fine, Boom, just promise me you'll go back."

"Fine," he moped, slumping into the couch.

"Good, now," Kat looked at her kids and steeled her resolve, "all of you: go home."