My Ratty Luck

Author's Notes: W00t! A hundred hits and over, who'd a thunk it? Still looking for a site with profiles on, thanx to Marzbar and Nanz for the reviews! Just for those of you that are interested, I'm trying very hard to be fair to Micah, but I really don't like him. He sounds too much like a dick of an exe I had.

I took a deep breath and stared at her shoes. I owed this woman an apology. I owed this woman a huge apology godammit, but because she'd brought me my piece of bad news, some part of my subconscious still really didn't like her. And I hated having to swallow my pride and apologise to someone I didn't like. I let out my breath, and met her eyes, but she spoke before I had the chance to.

"Hello," she said, quietly.

"Hi," I replied, feeling distinctly awkward and out of place. I could feel Jason's eyes on the back of my head. I cleared my throat. "I think I owe you an apology." I tried to speak clearly, but my voice wouldn't go any louder than murmuring level.

Dr. Lillian waved her hand. "That's quite all right, it was understandable considering the circumstances." She smiled at me.

"Nevertheless," I said, "I'm sorry I behaved as I did." She nodded at me, still smiling. The gesture reminded me of something, and suddenly a little switch in my head made the connection.

"Hey!" I said, turning around to face Jason again. "You knew, didn't you?"

Jason looked slightly guilty. "She'd told us about you earlier. Two brown haired girls in wheelchairs," he paused on the wheelchair bit, obviously unsure if he'd said something wrong. I just continued to frown at him. "The chances were minimal. Besides," he gave me a sly grin, "I could smell it on you." He tapped the side of his nose with one finger.

"But," I looked between the two of them, still confused, "how did he contact you?"

Jason grinned again. "Micah snuck out to get her." Lillian nodded.

That made sense, I remembered the time his eyes seemed to go elsewhere while he was talking to me. "Who's Micah?"

"He's just parking the car." Lillian pointed to the door behind her. "He's the co-coordinator, and the Nimir-ra of the leopard pard."

The name rang a bell, I'd seen it on the website, I think. "Micah Callahan?"

They both nodded, and at that moment a short man in sunglasses walked in. Jason grinned again - or had he ever stopped?

"Micah, can I introduce you to Kat, soon to be the newest member of the wererats."

The man grinned at me, revealing pearly white teeth, but no fangs. His brown curly hair was loosely tied back, and he was short. Very short in fact, far more so than Jason. He was standing, and I was sitting, but his head was only about half a foot or so above me. Despite this, he carried an air of easy dominance, like he was just that sure of himself and his ability to handle any situation that arose. He removed the glasses, and suddenly I had a very surreal moment. His eyes were like those of a cat! In fact, they were practically identical to Pumpkin's, the pointed pupil, the gold iris around it, intersected by grass-green spikes projecting from the outer rim of the iris. They were very beautiful, and very disturbing.

"Welcome," he said simply. His voice was mid-baritone with a very slight growl underneath it. He held out his hand. I shook it, still half hypnotised by his eyes.

"Pleased to meet you." I replied. This day had gone so far above my normal weirdness quota I could no longer see it, and suddenly I was very, very tired. But Lillian was still talking to me.

"What made you change your mind?" she asked gently. I shrugged.

"It's kinda inevitable, isn't it? Can't run from it, even if I could walk." I gave her a wry smile. "Besides, I had a rather unpleasant exchange with a friend of mine that told me I might have been a bit of a bitch about it."

Lillian frowned. "What happened?" There was concern in her voice, and I remembered what Jason had said about losing your job if you were outed. She was probably worried about whether I'd mentioned her to Rose.

"I didn't tell her about you." I said quickly. "I just said a doctor had been around. I was still pretty upset. I told her and she went nuts. Started calling me a freak and stuff. Destroyed most of my kitchen implements by throwing them at me. I ended up having to throw her out. Second time the dogs have chased someone down my drive today!" Lillian grinned at me. Jason and Micah, however, frowned.

"You have dogs?" Micah said. He sounded concerned.

"Yeah, four of them, and three cats too." I frowned back at him.

"I'm sorry." He said.

"Why?" I was really puzzled now.

Jason took over the explanation. "All domestic animals, with the exception of trulhounds, are afraid of lycanthropes, in either form." He said, looking sympathetic. "You'll have to get rid of them, they'll abandon the house and run away rather than live with someone with the virus."

I felt my insides go cold. Loose Lucy, and Jem and Pig and the others? I couldn't. I just couldn't. They were all I had left now I'd lost Rose. I couldn't give them away. Thankfully, Lillian spoke up before I could go into full out panic mode.

"Actually," she said, smiling wider now, "I think Kat might be the exception to that rule. It was her animals that drove Ben off and prevented him from doing more damage."

The other two were now looking at her like she'd grown a second head. Micah spoke first. "They what?"

"They drove him off." Lillian said calmly, although there was something in her demeanour that told me she was enjoying giving this piece of information very much. "Kat has got one extremely loyal group of pets. Did they behave any differently towards you after the attack? You said they were spooked." She asked me, while Micah and Jason continued to stare.

I nodded, still unsure what the big deal was. "They've been much more protective, won't let me go anywhere on my own. They insisted on sleeping with me last night, no matter how I tried to lock them out. And after the attack, the cats took up sentry posts by the garden door. I can't think of anything else out of the ordinary." I was still looking at them strangely. Jason was grinning again, and Micah seemed to have recovered.

"Do they accept all lycanthropes, or is it just you?" he asked.

"Just Kat," said Lillian. "They were pretty hostile towards me when I was there."

"They've been pretty hostile to everyone." I said. "They drove Rose off for me."

"Rose?" Asked Jason. "Was she the friend you talked about earlier?"

I nodded. "Friend, helper, cleaner, cook, I generally need someone around to help me out." I gestured at my legs. Lillian nodded her understanding, while Jason and Micah's faces had grown slightly suspicious.

"What does this Rose look like?" Asked Micah, slowly. I shrugged.

"About 5'6, blonde, blue eyed, mid-forties, why?" A slow look of horror was stealing over both of their faces. Lillian still looked as nonplussed as I did, however, and we shared a 'what the hell??' look.

"How," said Micah, even more slowly and deliberately than before, "did she react when you told her about the result?"

"Yeah," butted in Jason. "Did she make any really out there accusations?"

I nodded at them. "Yeah accused me of, erm…" It was still embarrassing to say it, even if it was far from the truth. "Of committing bestiality with my dogs."

The men's faces hardened. "Did you say you'd left your animals at home?"

I nodded again. "At my house, yeah."

They exchanged a somewhat panicked look. “We have to get back there. Now.” Said Micah, already moving towards the door again. Jason moved up behind me, and started pushing my chair towards the door too. I put the brakes on and brought us to a sudden halt. He looked down at me, puzzled. I glared up at him.

“I am perfectly capable of moving myself, thank you.” I bit off. I hate when people touch my chair. It wasn’t a part of me technically, but it may as well have been, and personal space was one of my big issues. I loath people thinking they can wheel me around because ‘it’ll be faster’. Generally, no it’s really not, because they’re not used to handling a wheelchair. People that do this also have a habit of speaking to me as if it was my brain that didn’t work as well as my legs. One of these once went so far as to pat me on the head and call me ‘lil lady’. I had not held back on my anger on that occasion, and I swear I actually taught the policemen around me some new cuss words.

Some of this must have shown on my face, because Jason’s eyes went wide, and he started backing away, muttering apologies. I waved him off. It wasn’t his fault he’d hit one of my sore spots. We headed after Micah.

“Why the hurry?” I called out to him.

“I think it’s Rose Peterson.” He called over his shoulder. He waved a hand to another man with long hair who was getting out of a jeep on the far side of the lot.

“Hunh?” I said.

“Rose Peterson,” said Jason, “is one of the main members of the splinter group Humans First, and is generally in charge of their financing operations. How she goes around financing them though, is something the police are suspicious about. The police department Anita – Micah’s partner – works with warned us she was thought to be in St. Louis.”

Micah was already in the car. “I’ll call Zerbrowski on the way.” He said. “Lillian…”

“I know she said, still standing just inside the doorway. “I can’t be seen with you guys. Don’t worry, Fredo’s only five minutes away, I’ll be fine.”

I wheeled myself next to the car, and looked up at Jason expectantly. He looked back with puzzlement, obviously worried about doing something else to offend me. I sighed. I didn’t like this part, but it was a necessary evil. “You have to lift me in; the angle is too awkward for me to do it myself.”

He nodded, and hesitantly slid one arm behind my back, and the other under my knees, then lifted me carefully as if I were some piece of precious china. I gave him an encouraging smile. The china thing would wear off - soon he’d be slinging me in and out of vehicles with abandon if we had to do this regularly, I’d have laid good money on it.

He put me in the seat and started fussing with my chair to collapse it down. I pointed to the various levers he had to push, while I said to him “What do you mean suspicious about it? No, those bend up.” I hastily corrected when he banged at my footplates with a little too much zeal.

“She picks,” he grunted as he caught his finger when the seat suddenly folded, “people on their own, and then subtly persuades them to change their wills to give her everything, and once they have, she either waits for them to pop off if they’re old enough or in bad enough health. If they’re not, she’s engineers ‘accidents’.”

He went around the back of the car to load the chair into the trunk, while I sat in mute shock. Rose had been planning to off me? And the animals, if she was after the lot.

Micah finished dialing on his cell phone. “What’s your address?” he said, putting it to his ear. I told him and he nodded as Jason got in and we pulled out of the lot. I heard him repeating it to a voice on the phone, while I whispered to Jason “What do you mean accidents?”

“One woman’s car failed, another got her hair stuck in her pool filter and drowned. A third old guy had a heart attack which they thought might have been due to poison, but they’ve never been able to prove anything, so all they can do is keep an eye on her. But then they lost track of her.”

“But,” I said, thinking of something, “Rose and I never discussed my will. I left her some money in it, yes, but the only person to know that was my lawyer.”

Jason frowned at me. “How did you find this lawyer?”

I frowned back. “Rose,” I said, eyes widening, “she recommended him to me. Oh shit!” I put my hand over my mouth in panic.

Jason patted my leg comfortingly. It probably would have been comforting if I could feel it.

“Zerbrowski’s meeting us at the house.” Said Micah folding away the phone.

“She wouldn’t hurt my animals, right?” I said, really panicking now. None of them replied, although Jason gave me sympathetic look.

Oh shit.