Doctor Taylor didn't actually lie; but, I was in the hospital for a week longer than he had promised. He said something about how he could medically discharge me, except for the fact that I had the upper body strength to move around in the wheelchair and that I didn't have the proper knowledge to keep the leverage to do it. So, I had an extra week of on-site therapy.

Wheelchairs can be fun to ride in as long as you knew that they could be dangerous, especially on any kind of incline. I found that out the hard way, as did my therapist. During my second day in the chair, I had to practice going up and down a standard ramp. Even though I'm only 5 foot 8 inches tall and a slender 130 pounds, I apparently carry a lot of momentum. Needless to say, I made it up the ramp on the first try. On the way down however, I lost my grip on the wheels and crashed into my therapist.

I told the new therapist that these things should have brakes and that he should be careful around me. He told me that he had seen the last guy who helped me and assured me that he wasn't that stupid. You never stand at the bottom of the ramp to catch someone because you should always stand behind the chair to grab the handles in case something goes wrong. There was also less of a chance to get run over, he claimed.

After a few days with me, he understood how it really worked. It didn't matter where you stood, because you were a potential target when you were near me, no matter what the circumstances. The new therapist even had the bruises to prove it. Before I left the hospital, I visited my old therapist and he said that he would be fine in a few days. Doctor Taylor said the guy had a small piece of bone on his shin that had broken off and he might need therapy himself.

Welcome to my life. I thought to myself as I left the building with Natalie and Charlie. Mikki was working and couldn't be there, so she had sent one of her personal guards to me.

It was a warm and mild spring day with hardly any clouds in the sky. The sun shone like a beacon that led me into the world that I had been deprived of for far too long. The wheelchair fit into the back of the jeep I owned as if it was meant to be there, which was a blessing in disguise, considering I had never planned on using the space for a wheelchair. I rode in the passenger seat because it was easier to get in and out of, not that I had much choice. For some reason, you weren't allowed to drive a car if you couldn't feel if your feet were on the pedals.

So, I just sat there in silence while Charlie drove us home. The silence was a little strained, with Natalie unsure of what was to be done with me and not knowing if she could touch me or not. I looked at her and she must have seen anger or something on my face, because she cringed a little and drew away from me like a scared kitten. It made me sigh, because the last thing I needed was to inadvertently hurt her feelings, especially since our relationship didn't have much of a solid foundation. We had been working on it before my crippling accident.

I spoke out loud to no one in particular to get my point across. “I have no feeling in my body below my waist. You can touch me for reassurance only in places that I can see or feel you touch me. Spread the word to the others that I will shoot anyone who touches me anywhere else... especially without my permission.”

I felt the tension leak out of Charlie and Natalie as they slightly nodded, then Natalie's arms slid around my seat and she hugged me from behind. I hugged her arms and held them for the rest of the ride home and Natalie practically purred in my ear the whole time. It definitely made me feel a lot better about the whole thing between us.

I had never been so happy to see my own house in all my life... at least since the last time I got out of the hospital, which made me laugh. After death threats, vampire attacks, car accidents, assassination attempts, etcetera etcetera, I guess my level of happiness had become a little skewed. Natalie didn't mind my outburst and kissed my cheek.

The house looked just like I had left it, except for the herd of were-cats waiting for me inside. I believe ‘herd' just about covers the sheer amount of people that could change into animals that were present. They had been busy little beavers, too. I almost laughed again as I imagined that one of them was an actual were-beaver, considering I was pretty sure were-beavers didn't exist. I would have to ask Frank about that. He had a degree in biology and was a teacher at the local university.

We pulled over to the curb in front of the house, since about a dozen cars were parked in front of my place and Charlie helped unload me from the jeep onto my chair that Natalie had gotten from the back. I shooed Charlie away, in case he thought about taking over control of the chair, and I rolled up the driveway by myself without needing him to push it for me.

Speak of the devil. I thought, because there was Frank talking to another were-cat. “Hi, Frank. What's up?” I did not ask about were-beavers right away, despite my curiosity.

“David!” Frank yelled, which meant that my arrival had been completely missed. The whole house full of were-cats screamed and hollered for everyone to come and meet me. Then they did. Everyone took their turn and greeted me in their own way. Some did it submissively, like the bodyguards for the main family members of the were-cats, and others were overly-friendly, which angered me just as much as the submissive greetings did.

Thankfully, most of the others just shook my hand or gave me a hug and told me how much they missed me, as if I didn't get enough of that from them when they took turns and had visited me in the hospital. I kept a polite smile on my face and said hello to everyone, even the local reporter that was politely trying to cover the story.

Story? What story? I thought in confusion. “Luke? What are you doing here?”

Luke grinned at me. “Are you kidding? The local were-cat pack's first public grand gesture to modernize an accident victim's house and you ask me why I'm here? This is the biggest story I've had since the last article you let me do on you.”

“Yeah, I guess it's been a slow month for you with no ‘David Drake Slays Vamp' headlines.”

Everyone in the room stopped in mid motion, like when I told a zombie to stop and it literally stops in mid motion and sometimes falls over instead of completing that last step. Luke's face went white and if I hadn't had a vampire's complexion to compare it to, I would have said that it was ghostly.

“Come on, guys. Lighten up. I didn't die. I might be paralyzed; but, I still have my sense of humor.”

They didn't react like they thought I was telling the truth.

“Look, I'll admit I'm pissed. Everyone knows that, considering it's not a secret and you all know what happened to me.” I tried to make eye contact with everyone. “If I bitched about how I don't have a fair shake in life, I would be so busy that I wouldn't get anything else done.” I said in complete seriousness. “Now, who wants to show me around my new place?”

No one took me up on my offer right away, so I shrugged my shoulders and I went by myself. Natalie caught up to me and offered to push me around. I told her in not so many words that I had to do it myself and to give me some space. Yeah, you know the words I used. I know it was mean of me to react like that; but, if she had offered when I asked, it wouldn't have been a problem. She nodded meekly and left me alone for the most part and only hovered in the background as she followed me.

I took my time and tried to navigate around the various obstacles, which was easy since there were no obstacles. I could go freely everywhere in the wheelchair. I had figured that I'd have trouble with all the people; but, they flowed around me almost like ghosts, as if they were both there and not there. It was unnerving as hell, especially because I was envious. I could never have done it myself, even when I had the use of my legs, and I still felt that way. Envy is the root of all evil. Yes, I know that it's actually money that's the root; but, people envy money, too.

My house was still the same house, except that everything was now accessible to me. I mean I'm short, 5 foot 8 without heeled boots, and I couldn't reach everything in the house before. Now I could and I was sitting down in a wheelchair. I didn't know how they did it, but... they did. I thought of Natalie and she was right behind me. I promised myself to only use that power for good.

“How did you get the owner I'm renting from to agree to this kind of renovation? I had to get his permission just to board up the basement windows for Jeanette when she stayed over.”

Natalie turned to me with a smile on her face. ”You don't have to worry about that.”

“Natalie, I live here. You and Mikki live here. We could get kicked out for this.” I said, exasperated. “Did you get his permission or not?”

I had a slightly shocked look on my face as Natalie explained to me that Jeanette had arranged for me to buy the place. The last five years that I thought I was paying the rent, which was a bit on the high side of reasonable to be honest, I had actually been paying off the mortgage. The house was mine. All mine.

I had thought that I was done with the emotional stuff; but, I guess I wasn't, because I felt tears come to my eyes as Natalie bent over and hugged me. We had a home, an actual home for us to live in, and that was something that none of us had planned for or even expected to have at any time in the future.

*

My time in the hospital had been almost like a vacation, with no job pressure, no vampire or were-cat politics to be dealt with, and no police investigations that they wanted my consultation on. Except for the damaged spine part, it had been as close to a vacation that I've had in awhile. I was relieved to be back home, though. I wanted to get back into the swing of things as soon as possible, too. I soon found out that everyone else had a much different opinion.

After three days of the most boring rest you could imagine, I went to work. Or tried to. The outer office of my job was still the same veritable forest it always was when Natalie and I entered the building. I tried several times to change the status of the lobby and never could get the vote to go my way. Okay, so I was outvoted four to one, three times in a row. You can't blame a guy for trying, right?

We approached the desk of our daytime secretary, Edith. She was a fifty-something year old and looked like a striking forty plus, and she always greeted me with a smile. This time, the smile wilted at the edges and she spoke in a slightly sad voice.

“Hi, David. I'm so glad to see you're up and about...” Edith stopped speaking for a moment, sputtered, and tried to regain her composure. “I'm sorry. I meant that you're out of bed. I didn't mean...”

“That's okay, Edith. I'm still getting used to it, too.” I gave her a weak smile that showed her that I wasn't comfortable with the situation, either. “Is Hank in?”

“Let me check.” Edith said and checked the communal appointment book while I waited patiently. “Yes, he's here, and he's free.”

“Hank might be available, but he's never free.”

Edith chuckled; but it was a nervous chuckle, like she wasn't sure if she should laugh or not.

I told Natalie to have a seat in the waiting area. She started to protest and I gave her that look that said to listen and be quiet. She sighed with a nod and sat down without another word, then Edith ushered me past the other offices and knocked on Hank's office door.

“Mr. Augin? Mr. Drake is here to see you.”

“Thanks, Edith. Send him in.”

I was not looking forward to this talk with Hank.

A few minutes later, I was sure they could overhear us in the waiting room... and probably down the block as well, because neither of us were trying very hard to keep our voices down.

“What do you mean I can't come back to work?” I yelled at Hank, not even trying to conceal the hurt I felt.

“David, you've made this company a hell of a lot of money...”

I cut him off mid-sentence. “What do you mean 'made'? It's 'make'. I make this company money!”

“You used to. The last little while you haven't been doing a lot of anything for this company.” Hank said as he fidgeted in his chair and he stroked his freshly buzzed head where his hair used to be.

“What are you talking about? I've personally brought in at least seventy-five percent of this company's business! How dare you say I don't do a lot for this company or for you?”

“Look, you've done wonders for us. I don't deny that. But in your current condition...” Hank dropped his eyes to stare at the wheelchair.

“Hank, I've already told you. I'll take the ones that I have access to. Most of the modern cemeteries are flat and I can navigate around the headstones. I know, I've been out there and tried.”

“David, we don't need you for the recently dead. Even Chuck can raise two recently dead people in a night. Your specialty is the older dead, fifty years or more old. No one outside of this company can do it without a large animal sacrifice, or several sacrifices. I know, because I've checked.” Hank said. “You are it, David... but... you physically can't get around the old cemeteries with grass almost a foot high, broken headstones and god knows what else, in a damned wheelchair!”

The outer office went quiet, as if waiting for Hank's office door to fly open and have me spill out of it. Little did they know that I was not going to run from this conversation.

“I can't believe you're discriminating against me because of my disability.” I said.

“It's not discrimination if you really can't do the job, David. If I could carry you on my back to each job myself I would. I can't. I've talked to the doctor who handled your case and he said that they can't operate without making the paralysis worse or possibly kill you. As much as I want to believe that you can still do this job, you can't. You physically can't. I'm sorry.”

I sat there and stared at him with an angry expression on my face. Apparently, that wasn't enough to change his mind because he got up from his desk and opened the office door for me. I would have said something as a last parting shot; but, he had a look in his eyes that made it seem like this was the last time that he was going to see me.

Natalie waited patiently for me by the front door and held it open for me. I left the office before anyone else appeared and tried to explain to me that I couldn't do the job. Plus, I didn't like seeing Edith silently crying over my misfortune.

Our next stop was the police precinct. I didn't call ahead to see if anyone was there, so I wasn't surprised when I entered the squad room and most of the desks were empty. The closest police officer approached us like we were potential criminals about to shoot him.

“Can I help you?” He asked, cautiously.

“Officer...” I read his name tag quickly. “...Ambling. I'd like to see the lieutenant or the sergeant please.”

“I'm sorry, they are out on a case right now. Perhaps you'd like to leave a name and number where they can reach you?”

“Just tell them David Drake stopped by to see them.” Natalie said in a slightly playful voice.

Officer Ambling widened his eyes at the sound of my name. “David Drake? The David Drake?”

I turned to him with a bored expression on my face. “Yes.”

“They left something for you. Let me get it.” He said and left us by the door to get whatever it was he had for me.

Natalie broke the silence. “What do you think it is?”

“It can't be good if it was left here for me. It's almost as if they planned to not be here when I showed up.” I responded.

Officer Ambling came back to us and passed me an envelope. It looked very official and had the official police logo stamped on it.

This was definitely not good. I thought as I looked at the envelope in my hand.

_______________

You have the option to read the letter here or leave with it. What will you do?

A) Quickly open the letter and read it. B) Quickly retreat and read it later?

I sat there and debated if I should read it here or not. Unfortunately, I had missed the little timer on the side of the screen and it counted down to zero. Officer Ambling made my decision for me.

_______________

“My apologies, Mr. Drake. Unless you have any more official business, I'm going to have to ask you to leave.” Officer Ambling said.

“Apology accepted, officer, but I'm a federally licensed bounty hunter and I can stay here if I choose.”

“Actually, you can invite yourself in to investigate cases related to your field of expertise; but, you can't just hang around the squad room waiting for cases to butt into.” Officer Ambling said and motioned for us to turn around and leave. “I suggest you read the letter on your way out.” He said with a snotty tone in his voice.

I don't instantly dislike someone unless they piss me off first and Officer Ambling had made himself a convenient target. “Look, officer. I don't give a rat's ass what you suggest. How long have you been here on the squad?”

The change of subject startled him for a moment and then he said that he had been on the squad for almost a year. I hadn't seen him around before. Of course, considering how busy I had been with personal cases and other things, I hadn't seen a lot of any of the new members of the squad in a while.

“Officer, I've been working with this department for almost six years. I've seen and done more than I'll ever come to grips with and I've had a really horrible time lately. So, if you have a job to do then go do it, somewhere else preferably, and leave me alone.” I waved him away and tried to turn my attention to Natalie.

Officer Ambling kept talking, even though I thought I had told him off. “They said you were a ball-busting asshole, Drake. I never thought I'd get proof and start to believe it, though.”

“Goodbye, Officer Ambling.” I said through gritted teeth.

Maybe now he would take the hint. Lucky for him, he did. He left us to stand in the doorway and went back to his desk. I almost shook my head as I thought about the phrase 'good help is hard to find'. I debated staying right there to read the letter, then I figured that I didn't want to be there for whatever the letter said. I glanced at Natalie and she nodded as she understood, then she took control of the wheelchair and turned me around. We left the squad room and the building at a leisurely pace.

I opened the letter in the car as Natalie drove us out of the parking lot. It was an official notice from the police chief. “My associate services were no longer required by the precinct in matters pertaining to any cases involving crimes done to, by, or involving in any way supernatural creatures.”

My anger flared at that and I punched the dashboard as hard as I could. My fist smashed the moulded plastic to bits and I felt better for about a tenth of a second, then both the passenger side and driver side airbags went off. It scared the hell out of Natalie and she screamed. We almost crashed into the car in front of us and she swerved into oncoming traffic to avoid the car. Luckily, no traffic was on that side and Natalie had just enough vision to pull off into a nearby parking lot.

The bags were deflated to clear our line of sight out of the jeep and we continued our drive home. It seemed that this was just my day for everything to go as wrong as they possibly could.

We arrived home to what I thought would be another entourage of well-wishers and it was just some of the were-cats and Mikki. Natalie helped me just enough to get me comfortable in the chair and let me be. Smart woman. Speaking of which, Mikki stepped close to me and bent down to give me a passionate kiss and purred as she did it. She broke the kiss and I looked into those familiar kitty-cat eyes that I had grown to love and I felt that sexual pull between us, which shocked me.

“I feel the pull of your body, David. I believe that our being a mated pair shouldn't be affected by this... inconvenience.” Mikki said and waved at the wheelchair.

Everyone had been so nice to me the last few days that I was pretty sure I had been waiting for an excuse to let loose some anger. What my girlfriend just said was the straw that broke the camel's back.

“Inconvenience? Inconvenience! I'm in a damn wheelchair and I have no feeling below my rib cage! I don't believe this! How can you stand there and say that me being like this is inconveniencing you?” I practically shouted at her.

It was at that point that my power rose, and my anger flared it out like a small sun going nova. Since the were-cats were sensitive to energy fluctuations near them, my power reached out to everyone near me and they trembled as the chilling energy flowed over them. My anger pushed it out as I went over all of the pain that I had felt today. They all felt it and were caught up in my outburst.

Then I felt their power reciprocate and return to me. It came in a rush so powerful that I almost fell out of my chair, because it wasn't just a blind power push to reject me. It was love. There was no other word for what they felt for me. There was pity mixed in, and their own sorrow that was similar to mine; but, they all overwhelmingly loved me in their own way.

With their tempering power to push mine back, I carefully swallowed my anger and my power eased away. Natalie and Mikki were the first to approach and touched me like a small child that needed to be held. Then the others members of their family came over and added their emotional support as Natalie and Mikki held me tightly. Their prickling power calmed itself as mine receded back to wherever it came from.

“I'm sorry, everyone. I'm so sorry. I didn't even know I could do anything like that.” I said in apology.

They all looked at me, then at each other, and started laughing. I didn't get the joke until Natalie told me that I always said that after doing something so wonderfully amazing or something really, really scary.

Yeah, I guess that was pretty funny. I thought, so I laughed, too.