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Chapter 8: Hidden Desires

He woke feeling a softness beneath him and covers over him. His nose picked up the unmistakable scent of disinfectants. He sighed mentally, 'I'm in the hospital, damn it. I must have fainted.'

"Hello, Uncle! How are you feeling?" Came a familiar voice at his right side.

He turned his head and there was Felina staring down at him in concern.

He thought about what she'd asked. His body was heavy and he felt exhausted, an IV was attached to his paw and he felt a bit nauseous.

"Miserable! When can I get out of here?" He growled, trying to sit up. A paw that wasn't Felina's pressed his shoulder down firmly.

"You're going no where, Commander." Razor said grimly.

Feral jerked his head to the other side and scowled in surprised anger. 'How dare he be here where others could see him?' He thought furiously.

"Don't worry, no one knows I'm here." Razor said, divining Feral's thoughts. "I came through the window and T-Bone is waiting to pick me up when I call. The doctor has no intention of letting you out of here for a few days. You try to walk out of here and you'll fall on your face before you take two steps and no one is going to help you leave either. You have only yourself to blame...running yourself to exhaustion wasn't very smart. But you are just too stubborn to listen to anyone." Razor said bluntly.

"How convenient for you!" Feral hissed, collapsing back against his pillow. Razor hadn't been joking, he felt weak as a kitten.

Razor sucked in a breath sharply then leaned over and put his face to Feral's.

"Listen to me you stubborn fool!" He hissed furiously keeping his voice low. "I don't know why, but I care what happens to you and it's not just because of the kitten. Both our lives have been screwed and we are having trouble dealing with it. I can cut you some slack for being nasty because you're feeling like crap right now but don't keep pushing my buttons! You won't like what I'll do in return. Now get some rest!" He ordered the angry dark tom as he straightened up. Giving the Commander a stern glance, even though the tom couldn't see his eyes, he walked to the window.

Before Feral could recover from the tongue lashing, Razor had vanished.

"Wow! I don't think I've ever heard Razor sound like that before." Felina murmured softly in shock.

Feral was staring at the window in blank surprise. He'd heard a hint of that tone at the museum. It was a side of Razor that sent chills up his spine but not with fear. That Kat meant business and just because he was small in stature didn't mean he was a weakling. He recalled, unwillingly, how masterfully Razor had controlled their mating despite the aphrodisiac pushing him. The small SWAT Kat had insured he wasn't harmed beyond what the intense mating had caused and that he was satisfied.

Feral was angrily embarrassed to remember that moment when he had to admit he was a virgin, female to male. He certainly wasn't a novice in other forms of sex but Razor had far more sexual experience that showed in his handling of the delicate situation. Feral's body would never forget how that had felt, no matter how much he wanted to blot out that night.

Razor had been an exceptional lover and if he had to lose his female virginity at least it hadn't been bad. It had felt incredibly fantastic and the intimate closeness was stronger than with anyone he'd been with. He didn't know if it was because he was finally using all of sexual equipment for the first time, him being in heat, or the situation. He violently pulled his mind away from that line of thought. It creeped him out that he could be so sexually attracted to one of those annoying SWAT Kats.

Seeing her uncle was too distracted to talk, she leaned down and kissed his cheek then left him alone. Feral hardly noticed her leaving as he reached for the pitcher of water and poured himself a glass. He shoved those unwanted desires and thoughts from his mind and plotted what he was going to do when he got out of here.

Razor was silent and fuming the whole way home. T-Bone sighed mentally. This was just getting worse all the time. He wished not for the first time, that this was all over. According to Jaynard it soon would be.

As if reading his mind, Razor suddenly spoke. "I wish we could move on Dark Kat now! I'd know Feral wouldn't be able to interfere and be harmed." He growled unhappily.

T-Bone's eyebrows went up at that last addition to Razor's statement. That kitten and Feral's welfare were now irrevocably tied together in his partner's mind. He was worried where this was all leading to. He sighed inwardly and raced for home.

Reaching their home, T-Bone smoothly flew into the hangar and landed the Turbokat. He could practically hear his partner thinking in the back seat as they waited for the turntable to take them up to the main hangar floor.

Sighing, he shot back the canopy and jumped down. Razor did the same and stalked to his locker and pulled his G-suit off. Changing clothes without a word, Jake was soon dressed in his coveralls and disappearing up the ladder.

By the time Chance arrived upstairs, his partner was no where in sight. Grumbling to himself, he went to the kitchen and made himself something to eat. He watched a little TV then went downstairs to work for a while. Though it was after quitting time, he didn't feel like sleeping yet and there was no telling if Dark Kat or Viper was going to interrupt their day again. Better not to have a backlog, so he worked and cleared the vehicles in the garage. It was nearly ten p.m. when he finally finished. He took a shower, still without seeing his partner, then went to bed.

Jake had gone to his room to brood. He didn't like cutting his best friend off like this but he just couldn't talk about it to someone else when he was unable to understand his own feelings about it in the first place.

He had grown up a single kitten then orphaned at a young age. He had been very lonely because he was so much smarter than most of the kittens in the orphanage. His adopted parents had tried to understand him and to provide him with as much love as they could but sometimes it still seemed he was on the outside looking in until he met Chance.

Suddenly he felt a part of something and someone. They were nearly inseparable except for their sex lives. Chance was strictly het but he was bi. They sought their pleasure as often as time allowed them. Because of their dual lives, they never formed any serious ties with any one Kat. Though they both flirted with Callie, Jake wasn't really turned on by her. Felina was a fine she-kat that Jake felt was a better match for his partner. He, on the other paw, was restless and uncertain which sex suited him more.

Not once would he have considered someone like Feral. The tom was too arrogant, too dominant for his tastes. But when he learned the huge tom was an hermaphrodite, he was ashamed to realize that the thought of being with a Kat that was both sexes excited him. Though this circumstance was an unwilling one for them both, Jake couldn't hide from himself that he loved the feel of being with a male while still having the best part of a female.

That first unwilling mating had been incredible. The attraction, though forced, was still strong for Jake afterwards and he could feel a reciprocating willingness from Feral. The dark tom had not been too turned off emotionally when his hormones were pushing him to mate. Feral had been a surprise and even now, Jake couldn't shake how good it had felt despite the outcome.

No matter how much he wanted to deny it, he couldn't let Feral shove him away. Even if the pregnancy failed, he intended to be there by the dark tom's side. The trauma they'd endured and what they planned to do to solve it could destroy them both emotionally, but together they might move past it and survive intact.

He froze...he couldn't believe he was contemplating striking up a tentative relationship with his supposed enemy. He had to be more addled than he thought but nothing he did could shake the desire. Enough of this, he needed to focus on something else before he went completely around the bend.

He jumped to his feet. Glancing at his alarm clock, he saw it was a little past midnight. He'd been brooding for hours. He stepped out of his room and saw Chance's door was closed and the sound of soft snores told him his partner was asleep.

Moving soundlessly, Jake went downstairs to the hangar and to his workroom. He spent the next few hours till dawn finishing his new inventions that would put an end to Dark Kat and Dr. Viper for good.

It was just after eight in the morning when Chance awoke. He yawned and stretched. Getting dressed, he made his way down to the kitchen. He didn't see any sign that Jake had been there before him. The smaller tom's bedroom door had been closed when he went past it.

Sighing to himself, he fixed a quick breakfast and ate while watching the news. Finished, he went back upstairs to check on his partner. Opening the door quietly, he peered in and found Jake sprawled fully dressed across his bed. Shaking his head, Chance realized Jake had probably only just went to bed a little while ago. Now he was glad he had cleared the workload.

He closed the door quietly and went down to the garage. He began to call the customers to let them know they could pick up their vehicles as well as preparing to deliver those that required it.

It wasn't until nearly eleven when he returned to the garage, after another delivery, that Chance finally saw his partner. Jake was in the hangar doing maintenance on the Turbokat.

He walked up to him silently and watched for a moment. Jake's movements were precise and smooth. There was no sign of the turmoil, Chance knew was going on in that brain of his.

"There's only a couple of cars yet to be picked up but we're caught up." He said lightly.

Jake turned his head toward his friend. "Yeah, I noticed. Thanks for keeping up the backlog. I thought I'd use the time we have to repair some of those linkages that came loose in that last encounter with Dark Kat's minions." He said quietly as he turned back to his work.

"Do we need to reload?" Chance asked casually.

"Yeah, we could use some scramblers, matchheads, and a couple of spider-chains loaded. Also you should check the cement launcher." Jake said.

"Sure thing." The tabby said as he headed for the munitions storage area.

For the next couple of hours, they worked in companionable silence interrupted only twice by the arrival of a customer to pick up a vehicle. Not once during that time did Chance bring up the subject of Feral. As much as he dearly wanted to know his partner's mind, he just didn't want to destroy this temporary moment of peace.

As they finished the last of the work preparing the Turbokat, Chance said, "Well I guess we're as ready as we can be for their next round of attacks. I'm really surprised we haven't seen something today."

"The day ain't over yet, Chance. There's still the night ahead." Jake said grimly as he closed a maintenance cover and wiped his paws.

Chance grimaced. "Did you have to say that?" He said in pretend annoyance. Jake just gave him a wane smile as they both made for the ladder and back up to their apartment for a meal.

As they sat in their living room and ate their dinner, Chance finally broached the sensitive subject.

"I gotta talk to you buddy. It's been hard being around you lately. You've shut yourself off from me and there are some things you aren't aware of because of it." Chance started carefully.

Jake's face flushed with embarrassed anger, "I have been a bit preoccupied, Chance.

"I know...believe me I know. I also know you don't feel you can talk to me about it and that's okay. We all have things too private to be shared. This is something else. When you and Feral were having your...uh...little disagreement...the rest of us got to meet someone important. That guy that's been hanging close to Feral, not the Sergeant..." He paused to see if Jake knew who he meant.

"You mean that enforcer that kept his helmet and mask on all the time?" Jake asked, frowning.

"Yeah, that's the one. Well believe or not he was a mole in Dark Kat's ninjas. The Sandeval Bay Security Forces groomed him to infiltrate Dark Kat's lair. When Feral's enforcers caught that batch recently, he was with them. They verified his identity. He knows what Dark Kat's plans are." Chance told his partner.

"Wow! I didn't know about the mole but Feral already told me about the plan. We argued about who would be where when those two creeps struck. That's when he got so steamed and managed to push himself into a faint." Jake said with a growl.

Hearing that Jake already knew of what Jaynard had told them, Chance hesitated to tell his partner about Jaynard's own plan to take out both of the omegas before Jake or Feral could. He wanted his partner to be a part of the action but hearing that tone in his voice made him pause. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea that he know.

He could see the cold fury still reflected in his partner's eyes. Sighing inwardly, he made the decision not to tell him. Which, of course, meant he had to wheedle the information about Jake's new weapons out of him, very carefully, then he would have to steal them and give them to Jaynard. He hated to do this but Jake was too single minded about taking out the omegas all by himself and Chance didn't want to lose his partner.

"He did huh? Exactly what part of your argument was he so steamed about?" He asked cautiously.

"He wanted to be at the Nuclear Power Plant to take out Dark Kat. Imagine, a pregnant Kat near all that nuclear material. I couldn't believe him and asked if he was trying to kill the kitten he carried. He told me to mind my own business and that's when the argument spiraled out of control. That stubborn, arrogant tom Kat really infuriates me." Jake hissed.

"Uh...isn't he always like that?" Chance said rhetorically trying to sooth his partner out of his anger. "Look, I can understand that being near the plant is really the wrong thing for him to do but how do you intend to keep him from being there?" He asked reasonably.

"By tying him up and stashing him somewhere safe until everything's over!" Jake snarled, crossing his arms over his chest belligerently.

Chance had to agree that was not a bad idea but not practical unless they got the Sergeant to help. Wait! Maybe that's not such a crazy idea after all. Rubbing his chin, thoughtfully, he looked at his partner.

"You know that isn't a bad idea and the Sergeant could help us pull it off." Chance told Jake.

Jake's eyes widened in surprise. "You mean you'd help me tie up Feral and the Sergeant would help?" He asked incredously.

"Sure!" Chance told him seriously. "If it will ensure his safety, then both the Sergeant and Felina will go for it. It will take some careful planning though."

"More than you think since I told him that was what I'd do to him if he went anywhere near the plant." Jake said with a snort.

"Oh, okay then, you won't be doing it. He'll never suspect a thing until the trap was sprung." Chance said with certainty.

"Huh! I guess you're right there. Fine, I'll stay out of it so he won't suspect anything." Jake said calming down and feeling relieved.

Chance felt a small amount of relief at Jake's willingness. So now that his friend was calmer maybe he could find out about the new weapons.