Dilemma 9
By Leanna
Total chaos broke out down in the med bay, it took six to hold down the distraught panther long enough for Pumyra to inject him with a powerful sedative, even then he fought them. It took nearly ten minutes for the medication to do its job, only then once he had gone totally slack that they released their grip on him.
If Lion-O and Tygra hadn't of come in Pumyra doubted they would have been able to hold him down, it was their combined strength along with Bengali and a few guards that they managed to keep the panther from completely destroying the med bay and causing more harm to himself.
"What are we going to do when he wakes up?" Lion-O asked catching his breath, it had been a long time since he had to tackle Panthro's strength, even then if Panthro hadn't of been injured he may not have been able to beat him in the trials.
"Make sure to keep him out long enough to remove anything breakable and that's not bolted down," Bengali said rubbing his chin from the punch he caught from the panther's fist. He looked at the guard who had a busted lip, "or he will do more then rip this place apart"
"Our first order of business is to find the person responsible for the fire," Tygra said, "who ever done this will be charged with two counts of murder"
Lion-O looked at the unconscious panther, he understood fully the panther rage, as a father himself, if someone was responsible for the death of one of his precious daughter s Samara or Sela there would be no corner of the universe they could hide, he would rip them limb from limb and not think twice. "Fine her, NOW!" the lion growled.
"Lion-O, "Tygra said, "We cannot prove she had anything to do with this"
Lion-O's head whipped around and pointed a finger at the tiger, "then you had better find proof, because someone has to pay for this!"
"I completely understand Lion-O, but we have to keep our heads and do this the right way, "Tygra said trying to get the lion lord to calm down.
"Keep our heads?" Lion-O asked narrowing his eyes, "a child has died! And it was intentional! You seen what was left of the beach house, who ever done this, wanted them all dead"
"I know," Tygra said quietly then glanced over at the closed curtain, "she shouldn't be alone right now" the tiger said hearing sobbing coming from the other side of the curtain.
Lion-O nodded and patted the tiger on the shoulder and walked over and stood in front of the white curtains that separated the beds for privacy, he could hear Leanna sobs coming from the other side, he lifted his hand and slowly parted the while curtain, and saw Leanna sitting on the side of the bed clutching her sons lifeless body protectively to her chest, her face buried in his hair, slightly rocking back and forth sobbing, the sight drove a spike through his heart, he knew it wasn't him she needed right now, but Panthro wasn't in any shape to comfort her at the moment, but at least he could do something, there were no words he could offer her, so instead he sat down beside her and put his arm around her shoulder, "Lea," he said quietly, his voice low and soft, " i promise you on my word, that we will find who did this,"
The lioness didn't answer, the lion didn't expect her too, he reached out and gently brushed his hand over Kales jet black mane, which was now wet with his mother's tears, "he was a good boy"
The lioness nestled Kales head in the crook of her arm, she gently ran her fingers down the side of his face, before placing a sift kiss on his forehead. Then laid him gently back down on the med bed, "Is tere anything I can do?" Lion-O offered.
Leanna slowly shook her head; she didn't have the voice to speak.
"I will ask Pumyra to have Kale placed in a stasis chamber for now, until Panthro wakes up again," Lion-O said keeping his arm around the lioness shoulder. Leanna nodded and slowly stood on shaky legs, Sabar walked over, "I'll take care of her Lion-O, "she said putting her arm around Leanna's shoulder.
"Thank you Sabar" Lion-O nodded somberly.
The female panther nodded and took the lioness out of the med bay and back to her room.
Later that evening Tygra sat in the control room going over all the evidence he had gathered from the fire at the beach house, he scanned every photograph , every lab test results, he examined pieces of wiring and metal he had gather, "anything?" Lion-O asked coming into the room.
Tygra lifted his head, "I've been over everything at least a hundred times Lion-O, i can tell you the blast came from a homemade bomb set just under the main electrical panel, that's why everything stopped working,"
"But?" Lion-O asked knowing something wasn't right.
"This was a professional job, and I've checked Katra's records, and she wouldn't be able to do this, and from what Thane and Sabar told me, she wouldn't have had the time to drive to the house, plant the device and get away"
"She could have hired someone" Lion-O said.
"That will be very hard to prove, we don't even know who planted it" Tygra said scratching his head, "and the only one who heard something down in the basement was Sele and that was shortly after Panthro and Leanna got home, so we know Katra didn't have the time to do it, question is who else would want to go after Panthro and his family?"
"I know we have a lot of enemies but none have ever got that far as to try and do something like that, especially after all these years, only one i can think of but he's been dead for years and it wouldn't be his style anyway" Lion-O said sitting down in the empty chair next to the tiger.
"We need to think, who else would want to hurt them?, Leanna's Father?, Katra?, anyone else we can think of" Tygra said.
"I know Leanna father is a major ass, but i can't see him hurting his own grandchildren Tygra" Lion-O, "there has to be a clue as to who set the device, find that and we go from there"
"Sad part is, there really isn't much to search and find, everything was either completely disintegrated or burned too badly to be recognized, who ever it was made sure no evidence would be left behind"
Lion-O sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers, "There has to be something?"
"I'm not going to give up easily Lion-O, i will keep looking until i do find something" Tygra nodded.
"Good, "the lion said and stood, "I'm going down and check on Panthro"
Tygra nodded, and the lion left the control room.
Lion-O walked in to the med bay, all was quiet, way to quiet, Pumyra was in hr office with the door closed, the lion looked over and noticed that Kale's bed was now empty , he seen the curtain around Panthro's bed was drawn closed. He didn't know if the panther was still asleep or just wanted to be left alone. Feeling awkward the lion hesitated for a moment and open the curtain slightly to see if Panthro was sleeping.
Soon as the curtain part the panther turned his head in the lion's direction "Lion-O" Panthro said, "tell Pumyra to remove these blasted restraints!"
The lions eyebrows shot up in surprise at seeing his old friend literally tied down to the med bed, "what did you do to make her do that?" he asked
"I didn't do anything!" Panthro said with an angry snort
"She might have done it so you don't do anything to injure yourself further "Lion-O replied.
"Damn it Lion-O!" Panthro snarled angrily "Get these blasted things off me now!"
"Only if you promise not to do anything stupid?"
"Where's Lea?" Panthro asked avoiding the lion's statement.
"Last i seen her, Sabar was taking her to her you room" Lion-O answered, "swear to me you will not try and get out of bed and i will release your bonding"
"Yes, yes, you have my word as a ThunderCat, now take these stupid things off me" Panthro said tugging at the straps around his arms and wrists.
Lion-O smiled slightly and unstrapped the panther from the bonds,"I'm sorry about Kale" Lion-O said solemnly.
"I need to see Lea" Panthro said.
Almost like a apparition the lioness suddenly appeared from behind the curtain, "I'm sorry Lea, i didn't hear you come in" Lion-O said standing back allowing the lioness to come closer, "I'll leave you two alone"
"No need," Leanna said quietly, her voice completely void of emotion, "i just came to tell you i am taking the girls to my mothers for a while"
"What? No Lea, the safest place is for you here "Panthro said, he was about to say more but he look she gave him stopped him dead in his tracks, her eyes were as cold as ice. He knew instantly what she was thinking, he just needed for her to say it."
"You are not taking the girls anywhere," Panthro simply stated, "they are to stay here"
The lioness opened her mouth to speak, "No, "Panthro interrupted her, "you do this every time, something goes wrong you're solution is to run away, your not the only one who lost a child Lea, Kale was my son too "Panthro stated, "you can blame me all you want, hell i blame myself, but you are NOT taking MY daughters anywhere, you understand?"
"Are you quite done?" the lioness asked then sat down on the side of the bed, "for your information, I wont be going with them, Lila and Lethea are very upset, Lila more so, and it would be good for her to be out and away from here, My mother offered to care for them for a little while so you and I can deal with this"
"so before you presume the worse of me, let me finish saying what i was going to say" Leanna said, "Pan, I don't blame you, I blame the person who started the fire, I would never hold you responsible for Kale's death, I know how much you loved our son and i would never be that cruel to blame you"
Panthro nodded his head, "I need to see him please" he said quietly taking her hand.
"Wait here, I'll go get Sabar" Leanna said and left to find the female panther. A few minutes later Leanna came back with Sabar in tow, the female panther pushed a wheel chair in front of her and the two women help get the panther out of bed and in to the chair, then took him to the stasis chamber room.
Leanna stood beside her husband as Sabar opened the chamber and placed her hand on his shoulder as Kale's body slowly slid out onto the platform. Sabar lowered the stasis field then passed Panthro a small decorated glass bottle. The panther opened the top and dipped his forefinger inside then withdrew his hand, his finger was coated with black ink, and he leaned forward and drew two symbols on Kale's chest over his heart. It was a blessing the panther clan gave their dead, the first symbol sent their souls safely to the astral plains; the second symbol was the symbol of a warrior to let the keeper of the astral plains know this was a warrior who died valiantly and with great honor.
Without a word Sabar passed her uncle a wet cloth to clean his hand, Panthro nodded, Sabar closed the chamber back up and left the room, Panthro just sat a moment then pulled his wife closer and wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her tightly, Leanna held him tight, she felt his body tremble as he buried his face into her body and silently wept.