Hello everyone! One last chapter (for now) before NaNoWriMo! I call this Bittersweet.

Felina's rather routine inquiry dredges up an ugly...and painful...past.

Author's notes: Thanks for the review! I'm glad people like the story thus far. Would have probably had a chapter up sooner, but a death in my family drained my creativity.

As the first sentence says this is going the last from me until NaNoWriMo is finished in a month, Time to work on some original fiction.

Thanks to ulyferal for get this back to me quickly.

Special thanks to Brandon (brownxps) for sending a really nice letter when I needed it.

Enjoy!

AkaneKitty

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The Great Escape

Bittersweet

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"Sergeant, when are you going to retire?"

"When the Commander doesn't need me anymore!" Came the rather surly reply.

In Enforcer HQ's maintenance bay, Felina laughed as she watched Sergeant Dusty Allen, an elderly paunchy grey tom, work on a supply carrier. In place of the standard uniform, he wore coveralls marred with splotches of grease and oil.

She was glad she was back on the air defense rotation, running logistics and finding out what was needed before reporting back to the Commander and the majors. She had worked with Major York all night trying to break open the Siamesetown robberies case but hit a brick wall. The victims wouldn't say anything, either out of fear of reprisal or fear of outing illegal activities. And Lieutenant Chen couldn't make any headway with the victims either. Felina sighed. It was going to be one of those cases.

Felina glanced around the bay. She didn't realize how much she missed being on the tarmac. The open air, the exhaust from the various flyers...made her wish she was back in her helicopter. Hopefully, one day soon, she would be.

Mumblings and curses broke Felina out of her reverie, forcing her to look back at Allen. Sergeant Allen was an Oldtimer, an affectionate term for those on the force who had service time equal to or past the Commander's. In the Enforcers, seniority was just as important as your rank.

In Allen's case, his service time surpassed the Commander's and he headed up a team of mechanics that serviced all vehicles pertaining to air defense. He could fix pretty much anything, and if he couldn't it was beyond repair. A stickler for detail, no smart officer wanted to risk his wrath by missing scheduled routine maintenance.

"Damn rust trap!" Allen roared, throwing down his wrench in disgust.

"Can't fix it?"

"No. The stabilizer's shot." Allen sighed, pulling a rag out of his pocket to wipe his paws. "And I can't risk another supply carrier to go down when two of them are already in the bay for repairs."

Felina looked up at the beast of a machine, which was used to supply various Enforcer posts in the numerous city districts. "I suppose you can't get a replacement part."

"For this old thing?" Allen laughed. "They discontinued this model years ago. The Commander couldn't upgrade because most of the budget went to upgrading our weapon and defense systems. And why replace the carriers if they worked properly? They're just not as important."

"I see."

"But," Allen looked thoughtful, "You might be able to find a stabilizer at the Megakat City Salvage Yard run by ex-Enforcers, Furlong and Clawson."

"Furlong? Clawson?" Felina blinked. "Who are they?"

"They were before your time. Chance Furlong and Jake Clawson were one of the best fighter jet teams the Enforcers ever had. Furlong could fly anything with one paw tied behind his back and Clawson was a genius with weapons systems."

"...But you said they were the best."

Allen sighed. "Yep. And too hotheaded. The Commander had trouble reining them in at times. Finally he booted them off the force then made them work in the salvage yard as punishment for being grossly insubordinate and for disobeying a direct order from the Commander."

Felina frowned. Uncle wasn't the type to kick valuable and expensively trained officers off the force for something like that, but she also knew he had a few buttons that couldn't...and shouldn't...be pushed. "It must have been bad."

Allen suddenly looked uncomfortable and resumed tinkering with the carrier again. "It's not my place to say ma'am."

Felina was curious about the abrupt change in Allen's demeanor. She knew the Oldtimers were fiercely loyal to the Enforcers and to the Commander himself, so she must have inadvertently drug up a touchy subject, one worth digging into later. But first, she had a carrier to fix.

"So, you think I'll be able to find a stabilizer part at the salvage yard?"

"It's possible, but I don't want to trouble you, Lieutenant."

"It's no trouble. C3 officers are support personnel and air defense is in my rotation today. Besides...," Felina nodded at a chopper coming in for a landing belching black smoke, "...I think your skills are needed elsewhere."

Snarling, Allen turned around and started bellowing orders to his team while simultaneously reading the young pilot of the helicopter the riot act. Taking a breath, he turned back to Felina and gave her a snappy salute.

"Thanks for the assistance, ma'am. If you manage to see Clawson, please give him my regards. He was one of the few who did his regularly scheduled maintenance without me nagging him."

"Will do." Felina returned the salute. "Carry on, Sergeant."

Turning on her heel, Felina walked away, mentally reviewing her tasks. First, she needed to get directions to the salvage yard. It appalled her that she had been in Megakat City for years and hadn't heard about the place or knew where it was.

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About an hour later Felina passed through the open chain-link fence encircling the salvage yard in a borrowed patrol car. In the backseat was her briefcase containing the specs of the stabilizer the carrier needed. It would do no good if she brought back the wrong part to the maintenance bay.

Felina drummed her claws on the steering wheel. She didn't know what to think about Allen suddenly clamming up about the incident that sent Furlong and Clawson out to the salvage yard. She knew it had a lot to do with loyalty to her uncle, and she would have to be careful if she decided to be nosy. No sense digging up an ugly piece of the past if it was going to disrupt the status quo.

But...why hadn't she heard about the pair until today? Every fighter squadron had stories about great pilots and weapons officers of the past, yet she hadn't heard any stories about them. Very interesting.

The garage finally loomed before her, and Felina shook her head. This was no time to play detective. She had a lot more things on her plate like killer ninja robots and organized crime to worry about before she snooped into the past. Uncovering the mystery of a pair of ex-enforcers would have to wait.

Slowing down, she pulled the patrol car into an empty parking spot and stepped out. Looking around, she noted the two garage doors were closed, but there appeared to be an office door on the side of the building.

Pausing to retrieve her briefcase and hoping the two toms were around and not on a service call, Felina trudged up to the door.

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Sitting in front of his television mindlessly flipping through the channels, Jake contemplated his really bad day. He hated leaving Felina so abruptly last night, but he remembered he had cars in the garage that needed to be fixed. And there were more pressing issues.

First, the computer processing the killer robot's memory chip was mind numbingly slow. It was time to break down and scrounge around for parts to upgrade that beast of a machine. Computer parts coming into the yard were getting scarce so he might have to beg, barter, and deal with some toms he knew to get what he needed. In fact, it might be time to upgrade all his computers.

Secondly, his own friendship with Chance was deteriorating rapidly. He sighed. Ever since their argument, they barely spoke a word to each other, only talking when they needed to when repairing a car. Now Chance had disappeared somewhere. He sighed. He couldn't believe how easy it was for Chance to just stop being a SWAT Kat. Would he have stopped being a SWAT Kat if he was seeing someone as Jake? He doubted it.

It was time to corner that tom and have a real serious discussion about the future of their partnership. And he needed to look into how he could continue being a SWAT Kat by himself, just in case. There was no way he could stop being Razor now, especially since...

A bell rung loudly throughout the garage, alerting Jake that someone was at the door. Immediately he switched the TV to a station which allowed him to view the outside through cameras he'd installed on the perimeter of the garage. He was greeted with static and snow. The wires to the cameras must have been chewed through by the local vermin population again, he cursed to himself. Time to go wireless.

The bell rung again. Jake stood up then reached underneath the table to press a button which locked all access to the hanger until he punched in an all clear code on a hidden console. He didn't want another Metallikat incident nor have someone being nosy stumble upon the hidden base.

Hurrying, Jake walked through the tiny office he and Chance used to do their garage paperwork and the small waiting room to get to the door. Steeling himself against the prospect of dealing with Burke and Murray, he opened the door.

And his heart nearly stopped.

Standing at the door with her paw poised in the air as if she was going to knock was Felina, looking lovely in her dress uniform. Smiling a bit, she lowered her paw and clasped it on top of the paw holding her briefcase.

Jake struggled to keep his knees from buckling, fighting internal panic. Felina was here! At the garage! Why? How much did she know about me?

He mentally shook his head. Settle down, Clawson. Felina is the Master C3 Officer. She could be here to follow up on payments to Feral or seeing about old Enforcer salvage.

But it didn't make him feel any better.

"Hello," she said, straightening a bit, "I hope I'm not coming at a bad time. It looks like you're closed."

"N-No ma'am. We're not closed." Jake held on to the door to steady himself. "It's just been a slow day."

Felina nodded, seemingly accepting the explanation. She narrowed her eyes a bit. "You're...?"

"Jake Clawson, ma'am."

"I'm-"

"Lieutenant Felina Feral."

"...You know who I am?"

"Unless you're living underneath a rock, it's hard not to know about the Commander's niece in this city."

Felina laughed lightly. "True."

Jake found himself enjoying the laugh until he forced himself back into reality. Focus, Clawson. You're Jake the disgraced weapons officer, not Razor the incredibly suave weapons officer. Time to make a distinct break between the two before she figures something is amiss.

Releasing the door Jake straightened himself, focusing on the bars on Felina's uniform. Maybe it was best he addressed her like an officer addressing their CO. "How can I be of assistance ma'am?"

Felina blinked at the sudden change in Jake's tone but recovered quickly. "A stabilizer on one of our supply carriers gave up the ghost. Sergeant Allen said you might have one since you deal with Enforcer salvage."

"Hmm...I know we have some retired carriers out in the yard, but I don't know if we pulled any stabilizers off of them. I'll have to look it up." Jake stood back away from door. "Please follow me."

Felina stepped through the door and followed Jake through what appeared to be a small waiting room. Eventually they reached the office, where the tom offered her a seat next to the desk. As he took a seat at the desk Jake powered up a computer which maintained a list of salvage coming into the yard.

"So which type of carrier do we need the stabilizer for?" Jake asked, willing the slow computer to finish its startup routines. "Gladiator or Crusader class?"

"That's a good question. Luckily I remembered to do my homework." Felina placed her briefcase on her lap and opened it, riffling through papers. "Um...Crusader class."

"The newer model. We have some retired machines out there but we might not have gotten around to stripping working parts off it." Jake started a program and began clicking some keys. "Give me a moment while I check."

"Sure."

Felina observed the tom in grease smeared overalls as he did his work. This was the brilliant weapons officer Allen was talking about? He didn't seem like it...but who knew what being stripped of your career could do to a tom.

Or maybe she was too used to being around Gunny. He did set the bar high for wizzos.

She spied a glance at the computer screen, expecting typical Enforcer software, but saw a completely different program instead. "That's not Enforcer software, is it?"

"No. Just something I created on my own to make things easier." Jakes said offhandedly.

"Really? That's impressive."

A small smile crossed Jake's face. "Thanks."

As Jake concentrated on the computer Felina found herself observing him again. Every so often he would mutter about how slow the machine was and how it was time for a serious upgrade. Strange...didn't she hear something similar before?

Never taking his eyes off the computer screen Jake asked, "...Is something wrong?"

"Hmm? No, sorry about that. I'm just experiencing a weird case of déjà vu."

"Oh?"

Felina absentmindedly twirled a pen between her claws. "I have a strange feeling I've heard someone else talk about how slow a computer was and...Oops!"

At that moment the pen she was twirling slipped from her paw and started tumbling to the floor. In an instant, Jake caught the pen just before it hit the floor and gave it back to her.

Felina blinked. He's fast. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." The computer beeped and Jake returned his attention back to the screen. "Hmm...we did take parts off a Crusader, but unfortunately the parts are in storage and I'll have to dig them out. Do you have time to wait? I'll try to be quick about it."

"I'm in no hurry. It's been a slow unproductive day." Felina stood up, clutching her briefcase. "At least this will give me the chance to catch up on my paperwork."

After he led Felina back to the waiting area Jake stepped out into the salvage yard, heading toward a storage container. Fishing out a small PDA, he patched into the camera feeds which monitored the waiting area. Sure enough Felina was sitting there, apparently tackling some paperwork.

He stared at the screen for long moments, watching Felina do her work. The she-kat he was so in lo...er, cared about was a mere feet away, and he couldn't be with her.

This was reality setting in, he mused to himself. At the end of the day he was just Jake Clawson. Razor was only someone he wished he could be all the time.

There was no way Felina would be interested in him. Razor? Sure. But Jake the disgraced former weapons officer? Not a chance.

And it hurt.

Jake sighed, placing the PDA back into his pocket. He could always drown his sorrows later. Right now, there was a critical part he needed to locate.

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Felina was completing some mind numbing reports in the waiting room when her phone chirped. Pulling it from her coat, and not bothering to read the screen, she answered professionally.

"Lieutenant Feral."

"Felina! I've finally caught up with you!" Callie's cheery voice came through the phone. "I called your office but they said you were out."

"Yeah, just doing my duties as support staff." Felina dropped her pen on her lap and stretched. "Right now I'm working on paperwork while I wait on a part from the salvage yard."

"You're at the salvage yard? Say hi to Jake and Chance for me."

Felina's interest was piqued. "You know them?"

"Yes. They keep my car in top running shape. Which is necessary in this city."

"I'll say. Know anything else about them?"

"Not really. Other than I thought Jake was cute."

Felina grinned. "Better not let Uncle hear you say that."

"He can manage." Callie replied coolly. "Anyway, I was calling to see if you can go out for drinks later this week. I'm finally free of budget duty and I could use some company."

Felina continued to grin and lowered her voice. "Is this an attempt to find out who I'm sleeping with by getting me drunk? Because you know that never works on a Feral."

"Of course it doesn't work. Sex does, which is why it works on Ulysses."

Felina cringed. "Spare me that visual."

"You brought it up." Callie retorted. "And I will figure out who the new tom is in your life in due time. But right now I just want to drink with my friend."

"Okay, okay. I think I have a night shift off soon. I'll give you a call."

"Great! See you later!"

Felina signed off as Jake entered the waiting room, a small box in the crook of his arm. Wandering over to a shelf, he grabbed a clipboard.

"I found the stabilizers and packed three of them for you. But there's more in storage if you need them."

"Thanks." Felina stood up. "The Deputy Mayor says hello."

"Really? Her car's due for a tune up."

"I'll be sure to tell her."

As Felina gathered her things, Jake tried to be inconspicuous while observing her as he filled out his own paperwork. He wasn't sure which of the different looks of Felina was his favorite, having seen her in and out of various stages of dress. But in her dress uniform she looked very sophisticated. And it suited her rank.

But then again, Fresh from a Firefight Felina would always be his favorite.

Not taking her eyes off her briefcase, Felina calmly said, "I think you can stop staring at my legs now."

Jake winced. So much for being inconspicuous. "Well ma'am, they weren't the only things I was staring at. But they are nice."

"Is that so?" Such surprising honesty forced Felina to look at Jake, who resumed writing on his clipboard. She smirked. "Since you're being honest, I'll let you get away with that comment."

"Really? Must be my lucky day."

Felina chuckled, finally finished repacking her briefcase. There was an undercurrent of a smart ass behind the polite facade which reminded her of another special tom.

"You know...you remind me of another tom who just happens to be a smart ass."

"Oh? I take it he made a good impression like I did?"

Felina looked wistful for second, color spotting her cheeks before resuming a more professional air.

"Yeah, he did."

No longer feeling sorry for himself, Jake handed Felina the box, along with a form. "I filled out a requisitions form for you. Don't think you want to get in trouble by not filing the proper paperwork."

"True. Though it makes me wish for the day we go fully electronic." Juggling the box to the crook of her arm, Felina grabbed her briefcase. "Thanks Jake."

"No problem."

Jake escorted Felina to her squad car, and made sure she was well on her way out of the yard before returning to the garage and on into the office. It was time to compete some neglected paperwork.

Work hard. Play harder.

And time with Felina as Razor made his days as Jake bearable.