Tabby Kat Ch. 09 & Epilogue

"I've missed you so much, Paul," Lisa said as the tears began to fall down her cheeks and on the shoulder of his shirt. She fought to control her emotions. "Let me introduce you to Simon."

The two parted and Lisa took a step toward her son and lover. "Simon," she began. "This is your Uncle Paul. Paul this is Simon. He's my greatest achievement and the love of my life."

"I'm very happy to meet you, Simon."

"I have mixed emotions about it, sir."

"I can understand that. I hope that you will forgive me for my part in what went on back then. I am very sorry that I hurt your mother and father that way."

"I promise to keep an open mind, but it will take some time for me to process it."

"Thank you. That's probably the best I could ask and expect, and most definitely more than I deserve."

"Paul," Lisa started. "What about Mom and Dad? How are they?"

"You mean you don't know?" he asked, bewildered.

"I haven't heard anything about anyone since that time."

"You better sit down, sweetheart. This isn't going to be easy to hear. Simon, you'll need to hold your girl very tight for this. She's going to need your support big time."

"Tabitha, will you join us, please," Lisa said as she sat. "My brother obviously has some bad news for me and I would like my friend here to help me with it."

Tabitha moved to the couch by her new friend wrapping her arm around her as the noise level of the party began to rise just a little, the rest of the group moving to give them space and talking amongst themselves. Paul drew up a chair and sat in front of them, leaning forward so that he could keep this between the five of them as his wife followed suit.

"The news is bad on this subject," Paul began. "Lisa, Mom died twelve years ago."

"That's the same year that Mike died."

"I know, sweetie. How much did the police tell you about his accident?"

"Only that another car somehow lost control and it pushed both of them off the bridge. Oh no! Was it her? Was it Mom driving the car that lost control?"

Paul closed his eyes for a few seconds as he thought about how to say what had to be said. "You'll have to be strong, Lis," he said. "The car didn't just lose control."

"What are you saying, Paul?"

"We found Mom's diary when the police started investigating the, uh, well, accident, for want of a better word. She was the one in the other car, but it wasn't an accident that she was. She had a whole lot of different plans written down in her diary. Each one seemed to be rejected because it ended with her being caught and sent to prison. But she planned out many scenarios on how to kill Mike. She seemed to think that if he were dead, you would give up Simon and come back home. The only thing that she didn't get right in the plan that she finally decided to attempt was the fact that she ended up going off that bridge as well. Of course, if she had succeeded, I know that you wouldn't have given up Simon, either, but she couldn't see that."

"Oh, Paul," Lisa nearly wailed. "No wonder Mr. Brooks blamed me for the accident. I never knew." Tears were falling again as she buried her face in Simon's shirt and Tabitha hugged her from behind. She cried for close to two minutes and Paul waited until she was back under control.

"What about Dad?" she finally asked.

"He died two years later. There was a big scandal and we even changed our name to get away from it. That's why my last name is Crenshaw instead of Carter. But even with that, he was hit pretty hard with all that went on. The way he looked at it, he considered you to be dead, then Mom went off her rocker and he felt like she was betraying him with what she did, and on top of that, I wasn't joining the family business which he took as abandoning him. He fell into a bottle and never came back up. He literally drank himself to death. The autopsy showed that he had cirrhosis of the liver as well as alcohol poisoning. He had been dead for probably two hours when I found him."

"I'm so sorry, Paul. This is all my fault."

"Now, don't you go thinking like that," he warned. "Their choices were their own. Your choice was the right one to make, and if they couldn't see it, then that's their problem, not yours."

"But if I hadn't gone to that drive-in that night, none of this would have happened."

"You don't know that. What do you think would have gone on if you had waited three more years? You two were so in love you wouldn't have been able to keep your hands off each other. You may have been a few years older, but the results probably would have been the same. And even if they weren't, eventually there would have come a time when you two would have gotten married and gone off on your own. I think no matter when it happened, Mom would have still gone off the deep end. So, don't go blaming yourself. Look. You have Simon here because you wouldn't let Dad kill him and push you into some boarding school. That would have been a million times worse than marrying Mike. Dad wouldn't have let you come back home even if you had given in to his demands. That is something to celebrate in itself. So, forget about what happened with Mom and Dad."

"Thank you, Paul. You always did know how to cheer me up."

"I knew how to bring you down, too, didn't I? I'm sorry I said I didn't have a sister. I shouldn't have done that. I could have stayed in touch and still been friends with you and Mike, but I didn't. I have to take the blame for that. I have to accept the consequences of my choices."

"That doesn't matter, now," Lisa said. "I have my brother back. That's all that matters. I love you, Paul."

" I love you, too, Lis. When the accident happened, I decided to try to get back together with you. I even tried to talk Dad into letting you come home with Simon. He wouldn't hear of it. He said you were dead and that was the end of it. So, I thought I would try to find you myself.

"I thought you would be at Mike's funeral and figured that was the place to start. But you never showed up. What happened that you didn't make it to the funeral?"

"When you got there, were there two big guys that looked like mafia dudes outside the funeral home?"

"No."

"You got there after us, then. They worked for Mr. Brooks. They wouldn't let me go in. They took Simon and I away and brought us here to Albany. They took us to an apartment, handed me ten thousand dollars and told me we had three months to make a way for us to live. They said the apartment was paid for up to that amount of time and that at the end of it, I had to get out and find my own place to live.

"I took Simon with me all over this town looking or a job. Those guys said that they would take care of all our things and I was to stay away from Bend from now on. They brought our stuff to us while I was out looking for work and just put it all in the front room of the apartment. Except for our clothes, I didn't even unpack them. I just left them where they were.

"It took nearly two months to find anyone who would hire me. The first one who did was a firm that would train people in medical transcribing and I jumped on it. They trained me and after a while, I was good enough at it that I could do it at home instead of at the office so that I could be there for Simon. So finally, I was out from under the thumb of Tom Brooks and into a place of my own. It took two more years to make it to where I could buy the house we live in, and it wasn't easy going, but we made do without too much problem."

"That bastard. He knew where you were!"

"What?"

"When you weren't at the funeral, I asked Mr. Brooks about you. He said he had no idea of where you were at and he didn't care. He threatened calling the police on me if I didn't leave right away. He didn't want me to stay for the funeral even. I went to the funeral director, some guy named Carmichael, and asked about staying or if they would call the police, and he said that as the deceased was the son of Mr. Brooks, they would have to allow the police to forcibly remove me from the property if he didn't want me attending the funeral. I didn't get to see the funeral, either."

"I'm so sorry, Paul."

"Not your fault, Sis. I tried other avenues to try to find you, but it was like you dropped off the face of the earth. Then when the scandal happened, I met Rosalynn, and we thought that we might be able to get Brooks to talk, but he wouldn't budge."

"What scandal?" asked Lisa.

"'My turn to explain," Rosalynn finally spoke. "Lisa, I hope it's okay to call you Lisa since you are my sister in law." Lisa nodded. "Thanks. My name is Rosalynn, but most people call me Roz. I remember your wedding. Actually, I was there."

"You were?"

"My maiden name is Stevenson. My father was the judge who officiated at the wedding."

"Oh, yes," Lisa said. "I remember you. In fact, I was just telling Tabitha and Dave this afternoon about the wedding and that you were there with your father."

"Yeah," she replied sadly. "Dad. Anyway, that's who the scandal was about. Dad had been friends with your father in law for a long time. At the time of your wedding, I was fifteen and still a little naive. I just thought it was so romantic with the two of you getting married. I didn't know any of the reasons or how everything was manipulated to get it done."

"Mike and I were totally in love, so for us, it was romantic. We had a hard time of it at first, but we struggled through together. And it was worth it. There will always be a place in my heart for him. Even now with him gone, I still feel him."

"That's good. Mr. Brooks actually did something good that day. But he wasn't a very nice man. He did have ties to organized crime as you suggested about the two guys that took you away. I found out about what was happening when I began studying law my first year in college.

"For years my father had been in the pocket of Brooks. He used him on numerous occasions for lots of really bad stuff. When I passed my bar, I started looking into it and found a whole lot of evidence. I kept quiet because it was my dad. I thought if I could find a way to bring Brooks down without involving my father, he would come out alright and start doing things right. That was probably not going to happen, but I did love him and that's what I was working for. After all, he was my dad, you know?" Lisa nodded.

"But then the scandal happened. Dad was arrested for murder. When I saw that there was nothing that was going to keep him from jail, I went to the prosecutor and gave him all the evidence I had about the Brooks syndicate and my dad's involvement with them. We were able to take down the whole organization and especially Mr. Brooks."

"Don't worry, sis. Your name was kept out of it, mostly."

"What do you mean 'mostly'?"

"We didn't say anything about the circumstances of your wedding, but we did try to get information out of him about where you were. When I heard that Roz was taking on Brooks, I showed up and asked about trying to find you. She remembered you and said we could put pressure on the man to see if he would tell, but he never did. In the course of the trial and everything, Roz and I fell in love and we started seeing each other outside of the case. Finally, we got married, and that brings us pretty much up to date."

"Except for what we need to do for you, now," Roz said. "Since Emily called this afternoon I've been busy getting everything put together and getting things changed this way and that. Not exactly easy to do on a normal day and it was all the harder to get it done on a Sunday, but we got done what we could and we'll finish the rest in the next couple of days."

"What did you have to do?" asked Emily.

"We had to create a couple of new profiles and make them look like they have existed for years, come up with the whole history of everything, and change records to reflect the new profile. It will take some getting used to, but I'm sure you can do it. Simon, from now on, your name is Simon Bennet. You were born here in Albany, and grew up here. You met Lisa Brooks, nee Crenshaw, when you served her at the restaurant you used to work at. She was a regular, and the two of you hit it off and have been dating for the last year.

"Lisa, your history is essentially unchanged except you married Michael Brooks when you were eighteen. He was killed two years later in the accident, and you moved to Albany because it was too hard to deal with if you stayed in Bend. The one other detail that has changed is that you didn't have any children. You did get pregnant, but lost the baby for medical reasons that probably only doctors understand.

"Now there's still a lot of work to do to get everything changed, but I do have your new driver's license, Simon, and birth certificates and social security cards for the two of you. My day is clear on Wednesday, and I expect to see the two of you in my office so that I can perform the marriage. Tomorrow, you will need to come over to Bend and meet with Paul to fill out paperwork for your new job, then he will take you around to see about where you might find a place to live."

"Wow," said Lisa. "What is all this for?"

"It makes it so that you can marry Simon and no one will be the wiser about the fact that you also gave birth to him. Present company excluded, of course."

"Why are you doing this? I mean, I am grateful for the help, but you don't even know me. Why would you do this for me like that?"

"Well, first off, you are my sister in law, my husband's sister, and I help family when I can. Especially now that I don't have any other than what I have through my husband. All of my side of the family is gone. Second, Emily called me and told me that you needed help and she and I are good friends. Lastly, I told you that my dad was charged with murder? The charge was absolutely true. He killed two people: my sister and my brother."

"Whoa," Lisa gasped.

"He went to the apartment that they shared and found them having sex. I knew that they were together but none of us had let Dad know. When he saw them, he flew into a rage and beat the two of them to death. I'm doing this in part to honor their memory."

"Thank you, ma'am," Lisa said.

"Please call me Roz. We're family and I hope we'll be good friends, too."

"Me, too, Roz. What new job, Paul?"

"Well, it just so happens, sis, that I am a doctor. I am a general practitioner with a shared practice in Bend, and I am in need of a new receptionist who knows how to read all the doctor speak. A medical transcribist fits the bill just fine. You don't have to take the job, but I sure would appreciate it if you would and I would love to have you around so that I can get reacquainted with my sister."

"I'll have to discuss this with Simon," Lisa said then looked at him.

"It sounds like a good idea to me, love. We'll be together while I go through school and we won't have to struggle for money right off like we did when we first moved here. I'll get a part time job, too, to help out. Then when I get my degree, and have a job, you can quit if you want or keep working or get something else."

"I'll take it," Lisa said. "Is there anything else we need to talk about now, or can we start really celebrating this party?"

"I think we're done for now," Roz laughed.

"Simon, I want to have a dance with my brother if his wife doesn't mind and you agree."

"I'm not worried about losing you to your brother, sweetheart. Roz, would you do me the honor of accompanying me to the dance floor? That is, once we find it and have some music."

"I'd be delighted to, Mr. Bennet."

As they rose to dance to music not yet playing, Simon thought to himself "that will take some getting used to."

Epilogue

Wednesday, Late August, One Year Later.

A van drove south on Waverly Drive and turned left onto Forty Seventh Street. It went pass Foxglove Loop and continued to the next intersection, making a right where Foxglove Loop met Forty Seventh again. The van, when first manufactured, had been a plain, white panel work van with no windows. Now, it had a tear drop shaped window on each side near the back that was so dark that you couldn't see through them. They stood out against the shimmering, light blue of the van that sparkled like a drum when the light hit it. The back doors had been replaced with a solid panel painted the same sparkling blue as the rest of the van except where the mural was, showing the head of a tabby cat. The name of the van curved around the circular mural declaring that this was "Kat's Kradle." The inside was where the most work had been done. The walls were the same sparkling blue as the exterior. Along the left side behind the driver's seat was a couch that, when pulled, the back lay down flat to form a bed that two could sleep on comfortably. Just behind the front passenger seat, mounted to the roof, was a small T.V. and DVD player. At the back, a book shelf with a lip to hold things in, held the DVDs that were played on the T.V. ranging in ratings from G to R. Just in front of that was the small refrigerator that would hold the soft drinks the owner's kept for when they were on the road.

The van pulled up outside the Moore house on the south side of the road, facing the wrong way. Tabitha Monroe exited the Van and walked up to the front door of the house, entering without knocking while her husband moved to back the trailer, which announced on either side that it was the possession of " Monroe Photography," into the drive to park it next to the garage, not an easy task considering there were three cars parked in the drive, one of them a police cruiser.

"Mom?" Tabitha called out as she entered the home.

"In the bedroom," came the answer.

She walked down the hall shaking her head. "Of course," she thought to herself. "Where else would she be with Frank's car parked out front?"

"I got pictures!" she announced as she walked into the bedroom. "Hi Frank," she said as she saw her mother standing in front of him with nothing on, her firm ass wiggling side to side as she tucked his shirt into his pants, taking the opportunity, Tabitha was sure, to grab his dick in the process.

"Pictures?" she heard from her right.

"Hey Sarah. Yep. Simon and Lisa's baby," she said taking in the sight of her naked father holding the shirt of the pretty black woman as she pushed her arms in and wrapped it tightly around the Kevlar vest she already had on.

"Shit!" she swore. " I wish we had time to look at them with you all. We have to get back on patrol. Are they coming to the retreat this weekend?"

"They said they were," Tabitha answered. "I'm looking forward to it, too. Charles and I have been so busy with all the contracts he's got that we have hardly had time to relax while we were out these last two months. Long weekend this weekend, too."

"Yeah, I can barely wait myself," said Sarah. "I could use a little time off."

"Hey, you. I want a hug," said Emily. "It's been two fucking months since the two of you have been home, and we've missed having you around."

Tabitha walked the rest of the way into the room and let her mother embrace her.

"Me, too," said Jim. He came over to his daughter and drew her to his chest, holding her tight.

"Damn it, Dad," the young girl whined. You just got done fucking Sarah and your cock is getting hard again?"

"Not my fault," he replied. "You're standing there with those really tight shorts on and I could feel your tits through the stretched material of your t-shirt. No bra, I see. And I do mean see. Your nipples are really tenting the material."

"Yeah, I need to get some new bras."

"What happened with the old ones?" Emily asked.

"They don't fit anymore," Tabitha answered. My tits have grown to a C cup now."

"And they feel really good," said Charles as he entered the room and gave one a squeeze.

"Stop." Tabitha batted his hand away.