Emap Ch. 02

The man is laughing, I groan then hold the hand held up to him, he says his address. A patrol car finally pulls in behind the cars, he is outright laughing as he gets out. He goes over to the other one when I point toward him he handcuffs the man to the front bumper of his car then walks over to me.

"I am so glad I'm not you, Captain is a little on the chew you out side I think, I was there once, second week on duty. I swear he yelled at me for twenty minutes, anyway I have orders to direct you to the hotel, just take this street it curves up into an overpass and takes you right past the hotel, about ten miles from here, maybe fifteen." The patrolman says his voice is strong and earnest.

I thank him then take off again, learning from before I stay on this side until there is a large enough gap in the oncoming before crossing over on the ground. I get a few honks as I race past traffic, when the street goes up into a bridge type I start looking to the sides. When I find it I discover the two sides of the street are a rather good distance apart. There is a cross street below with a gap just ahead of where I am, I drop down to that then join the traffic going toward the hotel.

Outside of the hotel is as advertised a lot of lights, some police cars mostly news vans with their lights on the camera's and the vans. Seeing the vans have a section of the roof in back empty of whatever the stuff on them is for I run straight toward the doors, I think it's hard to tell in all of the light. I jump on the first van then leap from van to van causing quite a commotion inside and ahead, the cameras are turned back toward me as I reach the last van then leap. There is a lot of ducking though I land well past the yellow string, a patrolwoman comes running over.

"Oh thank god, I was starting to think the Captain was going to start yelling at me, come on the elevator is in the back." I look at her she is a slight woman, no taller than Sally, with brown hair almost black.

She leads the way into the hotel, the reporters behind us shouting questions. The noise of them dies down when the door shuts we make a swift journey through the rather expansive lobby to the elevators. On the way up the policewoman looks at me nervously then opens her mouth.

"Listen I've watched his movies, they are really quite nice, I've only seen the lesbian ones and not all of them, if you don't want those could I have them?" The fear on her is weak but there.

"Of course, I have no desire to watch women having sex with women. I would say you are doomed to hell but I have old values, I'm just going to say not for me." She smiles at that.

"Thanks, I'll try and ask Captain Miller if I can go for the movies for you." She says as the doors open, it is a short walk to the right room.

"Frank this nice young woman would like to volunteer to get the movies." I say as I walk in the room, the smell of death is strong.

Frank and Tony are standing against the wall, the remains of a woman on the floor at the foot of the bed. The smell of fear and urine under the smell of some orange smelling chemical draws my attention to the closet. Tony comes over when I go inside, I get down low to the far wall feeling at the floor until he pulls me back.

"Wait don't touch anything tell me what you are looking for." Tony says as he pulls me out of the closet to let another man go in with lots of things hanging off his belt and hands.

"There was someone in the closet, for an extended period, lots of fear and urine buried under an orange smell."

"Oh fuck pull up the carpet if the sicko pissed in there it's to the padding." Frank yells then comes over. "Jaguar can you tell us where the sicko went after that, maybe we can get lucky."

I nod then walk around he spent much time in the bathroom taking a shower. When I leave the room and turn away from the elevators Frank and Tony follow me along with another man who is quite nervous. At the emergency stairs I lead us down four floors before going back into the hallways. The smell leads me right up to a door I reach up to knock until Frank takes my hand shaking his head. He pulls me to one side Tony gets on the other side pulling out his gun. The man that had come with us looks about nervously the smell of fear rising fast and strong.

"He's afraid, more so than I would expect." I say quietly, the man looks at me then turns to run.

Tony clobbers him with the butt of his revolver the man goes down in a pile not moving. Frank pulls out his gun, a grey one somewhat like the one favored by the bad men, more rounded and larger. Tony goes down then pulls up a plastic card he goes to put it in a little black box over the knob until I take it then motion him to the side. When I open the door the click sends me moving back over beside the door, there is a loud report of gun fire the wall on the far side puffs with dust and is left blackened with holes in a large circle.

I am the first through the door, a man crouched behind the bed opens fire his shots are wild. I grimace when he hits my shoulder before I am across the bed sending him against the wall. I kick him again bouncing him off the other wall before he falls down in a lump. Tony comes past me to handcuff the man, when there is a groan outside I move quickly to find Frank holding his arm blood on his shirt up high.

"Sorry Frank gun smell goes up from what it is attached to, would take days to flood in there enough for me to smell through the door." Frank laughs then groans and leans over.

"Not your fault, my own damn fault for following you. Should have gotten the door busters in anyway, I suppose better this way, I would have to write a condolences letter." Frank says before grabbing up my handheld. "Captain Miller here, I was stupid and got shot, we have the suspect four floors below the scene. Get an ambulance and some cops here. Oh and call my wife, tell her I'm fine and going to need an arm brace again."

"Something just occurred to me, Jaguar you are going to have to go in court and demonstrate your smelling abilities. Hey you got blood on your shoulder are you OK?" Tony asks at my shoulder, Frank looks up worried himself.

"Yes no problem, I took one to the shoulder might be a little lodged in there though my arm moves fine." I say demonstrating my arm movement.

"I think you are going to the hospital with Frank and getting an X-ray. You may be fine and I'm just being a worry wart but it would make me feel better." Tony says sitting me down next to Frank.

"I think he likes you, though I admit to being a little worried myself, you were shot in the head today." Frank reaches over and runs his hand over my head.

Tony reaches down and scratches behind my cat ears, in no time I am purring and moving my head around to get him to scratch just the right spots. I hear the elevators opening, I point that way then sigh when the scratching stops.

"Hey over here," Tony yells before scratching my ears some more.

I hear footsteps and some talking I hear over the radio that it's the twelfth floor. Behind that there is a clump then squeaks as something is wheeled over the carpet. Two patrol officers come around the corner one goes right to the downed man on the carpet there, the other looks at the door then reports room 128E. Two men in reddish orange shirts come around the corner with a thin bed and a large red bag on the bed.

"Aren't they going to look at us?" I ask as the two men go past us, one to the downed man the other inside.

"Not yet, shoulder wounds go second to people not moving, bad guys or not paramedics just want to heal people." Frank says with a wry grin. "Hey make sure that one is handcuffed."

"Captain Miller you gotta let the young and stupid ones go first." The paramedic that comes to us says as he cuts the shirt open.

"He followed me." I say as the other one gets down with me he runs his fingers over my shoulder.

"All I got is dried blood on her." He says looking at the other paramedic.

"She's going in for X-rays." Tony says Frank nods.

"She's going to keep me company, we can walk fine do you want to take either of these two in?" The paramedics trade a look.

"The one out here we better, he's got a nice bruise coming and best to X-ray him now just in case one of you guys broke his face. The other one is going to have one killer headache and be black faced but he looks fine otherwise, no obvious broken. If his face starts to swell take him in, right now he's just an out cold suspect."

The paramedics put the man lying in the hallway atop the bed, strap him down then come back over to us. They put Frank's arm in a length of cloth tied together and looped around his shoulder, they call it a brace. I take Frank's good arm and walk with him behind the paramedics we have to hug the wall as two men with bags and little black things hung over their chests go past.

"Who were they and what did they have on their chests?" I ask as we reach the elevators.

"Those were crime scene investigators they had cameras slung around their necks so they could photograph everything before anybody moves it." Franks says as the elevator opens and we get on.

"Video cameras I thought those were larger?"

"No not video, those were still photograph cameras I think you know what those do. A video camera does the same thing on a roll of film well used to now most of the video cameras record to memory, same idea just using electronic data instead of an exposed film."

"A lot of cell phones have a camera feature to them, still and video. If you look I am sure you can find pictures of you online." The younger paramedic says with a grin.

We head outside the reporters are still there shouting questions, my ears roll back at the volume of them. I am very glad that the ambulance is inside of the open area, the paramedics load the bed in the ambulance first. One of them gets in then helps Frank get in, Frank reaches back to help me get in. The doors shut cutting out a lot of the noise from the reporters, my ears go back up with a sigh of relief. Frank reaches over and scratches behind my ears, I sigh then lean into him starting to purr.

"I never knew Jaguars could purr, humanoid or regular." The paramedic in the back says.

"All felines can purr it's just a matter of getting them happy enough. The big ones only do it to their young I think, hard to tell when they will attack anything that comes near." I close my eyes and curl up against Frank.

"I am married you know, I hope your not falling for me or anything." Frank says with a chuckle.

"Oh that was bad Frank you would not believe how good this feels I got pleasure all the way down me from your fingers scratching my ears. Let me put it this way, it is rather like having unimaginably great sex, having your all time favorite meal and watching something you always wanted to watch all at the same time." I don't even open my eyes, just keep lying there curled up my hands on his leg purring like mad.

The scratching stops when my claws come out, Frank groans then pulls my hands from his leg. I sit up as the paramedic comes over looking worried, when the ambulance bumps up and down and stops the one driving comes in the back.

"We are there what happened?"

"He was scratching my ears making me a very happy cat then I clawed him." I say as they get Frank to stand up a second then undo his pants.

They wipe at his leg a few times then laugh, the older one says no big deal just a flesh wound. The back of the ambulance opens wide just one nurse standing there, she looks in then crosses herself.

"Hey Nancy great timing, we have an accidental clawing could you run and get a wheelchair." The older one says getting out of the ambulance, she nods then runs off.

The paramedics get the bed out the man on it groans once then does not move. Nancy comes back with a wheelchair, I help Frank to the back of the ambulance Nancy helps him into the wheelchair. I follow her and the paramedics into the hospital, we all walk over to a doctor he looks at the man on the bed first then turns to Frank and sees me.

"Ah fuck and I thought they were playing a prank on me. Anyway Frank you look fine, why the wheelchair?" The doctor's voice strained and tired, his eyes carry a little of the tiredness.

"Believe it or not I forgot the one rule of scratching a cat behind the ears, have a pad on your leg." The doctor laughs then looks at the paramedics, one puts a thumbs up.

"Alright let's get you to X-ray, and why are you here Jaguar you seem to be in perfect health." Frank leans forward then tugs on his coat.

"She's been shot twice today, we want an X-ray you know the whole make sure and not listen to the patient thing. I probably see you to often."

"Yeah no problem, I'll probably have doctors beating on my door for years asking for a copy of the X-ray. Where have you been shot?" He leads us toward some elevators while he speaks to us.

"Let's see. Today I was shot in the head, and then in the shoulder just before or after Frank here forgot to stay behind the door. Yesterday I was shot low in my side, bullet went clean through. I really dislike the small bullets in use here, the hunter guns were much easier, fall over for a second or two and back up again with no bullet to dissolve." The doctor and Frank are staring at me in shock.

"How many times have you been shot?" Frank manages to ask just as the elevator doors are opening.

"Upwards of two hundred I think, it's hard to remember when you are talking about one hundred years. The hunters would go to the Amazon to hunt jaguars and a couple other things. The revolutionaries where the worst, they would take shots at most anything, a few times a broken twig would get a machine gun firing at you. They are greatly improved over the Gatling I can say that."

We have reached X-ray by the time I finish speaking apparently I was loud enough to listen in to the conversation everyone is staring at me. The doctor suggests I go first Frank agrees, a rather nervous man comes over then directs me to lie down on a table. He goes and consults with the doctor before coming back and adjusting the black thing hanging from the roof. He goes behind a wall where there is a click noise then he comes back and adjusts the black thing. He does this five times in all making notes each time, Frank gets a turn on the bed for one click then we are taken to a room.

A nurse is waiting in the room for us she helps the doctor get Frank onto the bed. They work his pants down then bandage his leg, the nurse leaves after that. The doctor has Frank sit forward feels around on his back then goes over to the cabinet he pulls a bottle of whiskey out and hands it to Frank. Frank takes a couple of drinks of it while the doctor gets tools onto a little tray.

"Hold his good hand if you please." The doctor says as he pulls a stool over to the bed and lowers it.

"So I understand you went to Antonio's today, did you like it?" Frank asks looking over at me, the doctor is taking a long pair of almost tweezers to his shoulder.

"Very much so, you can expect getting a bill from Antonio the plan is I stay there in between and have a snack when I'm hungry. There is really a rather surprising lack of animals I would eat in town." The doctor even laughs at that, before he really starts digging, Frank winces then squeezes my hand.

The nurse comes back with two long envelopes as the doctor pulls something out of Frank. She goes and gets a little metal tray he drops what he pulled out onto the tray with a clink noise. They pull black sheets out of the envelopes then put them on a long something on the wall, with a click it lights up. They go over the first one for a minute or so then move on to the rest.

"Well Frank you only had one, the bones are a little cracked so you are staying on a brace for a couple weeks. Jaguar I'll be damned, besides your facial structure you are completely human, no evidence of broken bones or bullets." The doctor says as he comes back over.

"Doctor I think we have a problem." The nurse says with a magnifying glass in her hand.

The doctor goes over and looks at the X-ray with her they look close trading terms I don't understand. Frank looks at me I look at him both of us shrug, the doctor and nurse keep looking before he walks back over.

"Well it is the most damndest thing you seem to be two weeks pregnant." The second damndest thing happens then, I faint.

When I open my eyes again the doctor and nurse are leaning over me, Frank is talking on his cell phone. I look around noticing I am on the bed, I sigh then sit up.

"That can't be possible, I was born barren the doctor told me so. Two weeks is even more not possible, I've been having sex for two days here and three weeks ago before that. I've not even had a period in over one hundred years." The doctor and nurse look at each other then me again.

"All I am saying is according to what we see on your X-ray you are two weeks pregnant. Buy some pregnancy tests and do those, Frank said you are getting social security tomorrow, make sure you get a doctor visit and he can do a more comprehensive test." The doctor says the nurse squeezes my hand.

"Better late than never on kids I always say." She says with a smile.

"Tony, Derek, and Sally are coming over you are now officially taking the rest of the night off. Probably good thing you passed out for so long, you got to miss the smell of that crap they put on my shoulder. I swear I think they try and make it smell worse every year." Frank says walking over with a smile.

"I hope you told him to buy rings, we are going to have to get married now."

The doctor and nurse leave us alone I curl up on the bed Frank sits next to me his hand on my shoulder. When Tony arrives Derek and Sally are right behind him, my clothes in Sally's hands. Tony comes right over and gives me a hug I uncurl then curl up against Tony.

"God's Tony I'm scared, what if I have a kitten, or kittens. Oh gods, they said two weeks you are the only possible but we only started having sex two days ago, how can I not advertise to everyone that I am different if I have a baby in a week."

"Little over a month would be closer to it." Frank says I glare at him.

"Come on let's get you dressed and home, we bought a few two liters of coke and five pregnancy tests. We are gonna take you home let you play the Xbox and drink a lot of coke so you can do the tests." Tony says to me as he motions everybody to get out.

Walking out of the hospital is a little harder than getting in the reporters have filled up the parking lot. Tony leads me around them while Frank speaks to the reporters Derek and Sally stay with him. Tony leads me around to the driver's side back door ushers me in then follows. When he shuts the door I curl up in his lap, he puts his arm over me.

I start to purr then close my eyes before they open a crack. I don't know how long I lie there dozing I just wake up when the doors open. Sally gets in the back with us, Frank and Derek in the front seat. I start to doze again, at least until Sally hands me three plastic bags. Tony opens the door gets me sitting up then gets out, he helps me out of the car then walks me into our building. Constance is waiting for the elevator when we get there, she gets on with us.

"Isn't it a little early to be buying pregnancy tests?" She asks eyeing the bags full of coke bottles and the tests.

"I got taken to the hospital for X-rays and it seems I am two weeks pregnant. Tony was being a little worry wart and thought being shot twice in one day warranted X-rays." Tony looks at me then groans.

"How are you still...? Oh my god no way," Constance is now leaning against the wall of the elevator.

"Please don't advertise that. She's supposed to be all secret identity here. It would probably be better if you don't tell anyone, well maybe if you can ever find a steady girlfriend."