Chapter 15 - WAITING:

  Leo paced the hospital corridor.

  At 10 feet tall, he was big and impossible to ignore. His size was usually a trump card, but not here. The building wasn’t designed with people as big as him in mind. Most halls forced him to crouch, duck, or angle his shoulders.

  He’d already smacked his skull against the overheard lights three times. Maybe four. Definitely four.

  “You are going to bang your head again. Calm down!” Ava said while working on a few terminals.

  Ava had brought him some clothes from their unit stash. The gear he’d worn during the fight with Varro and his goons was beyond salvageable; holes and gashes from claws and bullets; dried blood and street grime everywhere.

  The spare clothes didn’t fit right. The shirt he was now wearing was his size on paper, definitely not his size in reality. The shirt pulled tight around his chest and shoulders, straining like a losing fight, but it hung past his narrow waist, almost like a skirt. Pants clung awkwardly to his thighs.

  Leo stepped aside to let a nurse technician pass with a cart full of meds. He growled under his breath, more out of nerves than irritation as the technician slowed down to stare at him.

  Ava, sitting on a hospital bench like it was her personal throne of judgment, ignored his growl completely.

  “This is taking too long,” Leo rumbled.

  “Yes,” Ava replied “You don’t want medical care being sloppy because they’re rushing at their job, do you?”

  “I know. I just… fuck.” Leo rubbed the base of his neck. “I know he is ok, but I worry.”

  “We had this conversation five times already,” the small woman said, without taking her eyes from the screens. “Six if you count the one you were talking to yourself.”

  Ava was never happy with just one terminal.

  Having arrived at the break of dawn, Ava rolled in with a mobile cart loaded with four custom-built terminals, each sporting a twenty-inch screen. All of them fed into a modified MDC unit bolted to the cart, running off an oversized battery pack that looked like it came from a cruiser. It gave her a stable connection, but she wanted speed, not stability.

  So she had parked the cart in the one corner of the corridor where she could physically plug into three wall data ports at once, chaining the feeds to wring every last byte she could get from the hospital grid. Nurses gave her dirty looks each time they passed. She looked back at them like they were insects.

  “You should calm down,” the small woman said. “You’re scaring patients and staff.”

  “Good, maybe they will start to leave me alone.”

  Ava sighed and gave him an unimpressed stare from over her glasses.

  Small by comparison to everyone she worked with, Ava was human, five foot four. Yet there was a presence to her, like the promise of pain, that bridged the size gap. Even Leo, big as he was, sat up straighter under the heat of that look. Her hair, as usual, was tied up in a loose knot that didn’t stay neat, dark strands falling around her face.

  “Be honest,” she said. “You’re freaking out because of the ear and the mane. Aren’t you?”

  “Nonsense!” Leo exclaimed with indignation.

  He crouched down and tried to adjust it in one of the corridor’s convex mirrors.

  The left side of his mane was shaved around the ear, leaving a wide patch of bare skin where the doctors had treated him. The regrown ear was soft pink, too clean and smooth. It made the side of his head look vulnerable.

  Ava scoffed. “You should count your fucking stars. Being able to regenerate, even if just an ear, is a fucking rare ability. Many preds don’t get that. Still, here you are, whining and freaking out because your fur won’t grow at the same rate. Do grow up.”

  “I’m your senior officer,” he grumbled.

  Ava didn’t look impressed. She clasped her fingers and stretched.

  “Sure. And you can demonstrate your mighty authority now. I’ll stand and you can handle all these forms and paperwork I’m filling.”

  Leo recoiled so hard his shoulders hit the wall. His eyes went as wide as dinner plates as if he had been punched.

  “You are not serious.”

  “Oh, no, Sir. I mean, you are my superior.” She made a dramatic show of turning the screens of the terminals to him with the opened files on display “So, by all means, take over. Lead the way. Be the big man.”

  “You know the whole unit just manages to function because of you, right?” he said, trying to sound polite and landing on desperation.

  “You don’t say…” She deadpanned it without a blink.

  Leo sighed and slid down the wall until he sat on the floor beside her. Even seated, he was almost as tall as she was.

  “I didn’t think that we’d make it past last night,” he said quietly

  “I saw the reports,” Ava offered, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Lots of people didn’t make it back home. I’m grateful none from our division went down. But Julio’s lost half their enforcers. It is a mess there right now. Even if the moose hadn’t brought his goons to the party, he was a natural disaster on his own.”

  Leo’s jaw tightened. He had a thousand year stare.

  “I thought I was big. Ava… he shoved me in his mouth. If he wanted, he could’ve bitten my head off. I only survived because two guys rammed Varro with their cruiser. And they died for it.”

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  “You’d have done the same if you could.”

  “I don’t know,” Leo whispered.

  “Well, I do know,” she said. “You big stupid cat. No idea how Juno manages to date someone so fucking annoying. But your heart’s in the right place.”

  “You can be worse than me,” Leo said.

  “Yes, but I don’t like dating. Getting some action time in bed is something, but the whole sleeping together, waking up to bad breath against your face. Hard pass.”

  Leo tried to discreetly smell his own breath, cupping one big paw in front of his snout. Next to him, Ava stabbed one of the screens more aggressively with her finger, eyebrows twitching.

  “This is ridiculous,” she muttered, scrolling faster as she opened new forms. “Why do I need to file cross-referenced incident reports with Eastern HQ and the precinct liaison just because you two got hit? We never had to fill so many documents.”

  “Protocol is protocol. That’s what you say.”

  “Yes. But it usually has a sense. Kai is taking the lead of the Precinct, and he does that by flexing his legal dick. Protocols should be for basic safety. This is just a power trip of someone trying to feel important.”

  Leo leaned back against the wall, arms crossed tight enough to strain the seams of the spare shirt. The hallway was quiet for the moment. A few nurses passed, glaring at Ava’s obnoxious technological monstrosity. She glared back harder.

  “Ava,” Leo started, “any word from the Precinct? From Chief Elena? Did we get clearance to return to the field?”

  Ava shrugged, not looking up from her terminals. “No.”

  Leo’s tail lashed. “None at all?”

  “Well, I can see the general messaging and I’m talking to other units. The Precinct, and by that I mean Kai, is pushing some teams back to their units. Meanwhile, other groups are being brought and redirected to the Public Market. Someone activated their badge’s beacon.”

  “Ok, one enforcer is in trouble,” Leo grumbled. “They’re maneuvering to help them. That’s good.”

  Ava huffed.

  “You’d think that, but the order came before the badge ping. Whoever the guy is, he wasn’t part of the redeployed team. The team even got an order to rush in because they found out there was an enforcer already there.”

  “That sounds sketchy at best. So where’s our unit in all this?”

  Ava finally looked up at him over the rim of her glasses. “As I said. On hold.”

  Leo stared at her with a bewildered expression. “On hold? After last night? It is not as if the city calmed down.”

  Ava tapped her feet on the floor grimacing.

  “Yeah. Apparently logic took a vacation today. Kai has been benching units left and right, citing ‘strategic reserve allocation.’” She said, making a slow mocking voice. Air quotes and everything.

  “That means nothing,” Leo said.

  “Exactly. It’s word salad with a sprinkle of bullshit.” Ava said. “And before you ask… No, I don’t understand the angle. But Kai always has one.”

  Leo rubbed his forehead. “We can’t just sit here. Not with what’s happening.”

  “Welcome to my frustration,” Ava said dryly. “Look, I know the public speech. ‘Reserve units stay sharp, stay ready, stay fresh for redeployment.’ But that’s usually for weather disasters or riots, not a borough-wide predator event.”

  Leo’s lip curled. “So he is sidelining us.”

  “Yes.” Ava said it without hesitation. “And I don’t know why, which bothers me even more than the benching itself.”

  Leo looked down at her. “You think he’s hiding something?”

  “I think,” she said, leaning back and crossing her arms, “that Kai likes to have his fingers in every pie and hates when people do things without him. You and your unit did half the response last night before he could start to micromanage it. That bruised his ego.”

  “That’s petty,” Leo muttered. “And it was meant to be just a raid against a drug gang.”

  “We both know this. But he might be focusing only on the glory of being the one to save the day. That’s Kai.”

  A beat of silence.

  Ava scratched her temple. “By the way… Corporal Vallerie has been pinging every unit directly.”

  Leo tilted his head. “Vallerie?”

  “The zebra from Central Borough. She came in overnight to help with a crime. Didn’t you know? She even dragged your protégé along,” Ava said, eyebrows raised.

  “Morty? What are you talking about?”

  They stared at each other for a while. Ava slapped her head.

  “Captain Leonardo Roitman, give me your terminal?”

  “I mean… I might have left it at the unit.”

  “You are a unit captain. How do you leave without your terminal?”

  The lion shrugged. “I have my radio and Juno carries his all the time. He tells me if anything important is going on.”

  Ava groaned. “Oh, for the love of the gods. Didn’t it occur to check on his terminal then? Your guy is sleeping after the medics had to reset his leg bones and he ate something to fill his tank. He can’t keep you updated like that.”

  “I was worried, ok? So, what about this Vallerie? And do you have any news on Morty?”

  “Corporal Vallerie came here to do an investigation on a hard devouring case. She got called in because most of the forces were in the active fight with Varro. And then she dragged Agent Mortimer to help.”

  “Where are they now? Maybe I can help while Kai keeps us benched.”

  “Not sure about your kid,” she said, with a smirk. “But Vallerie is at the Precinct. Fishing for intel behind Kai’s back.” Ava lowered her voice. “She wants to know what’s really happening on the ground. She’s been cross-checking everything with the Eastern Borough units, and setting up a second line of communication.”

  Leo frowned deeply. “That’s… serious.”

  “Yeah. Some could say that is borderline mutiny if you squint at it.” Ava shrugged. “However, we don’t have any official news about Chief Elena, so Kai’s actions are not ideal. So I don’t blame her.”

  Ava looked toward the door where Juno was still under treatment.

  “I’m not sure what kind of game this zebra is playing, but she sounds smart so far. Kai on the other hand…”

  Leo snorted. “You never liked Kai.”

  Ava rolled her eyes so hard it was audible. “Of course I didn’t. The guy oozes ‘I rehearse my speeches to the mirror’ energy.”

  Leo huffed a weak laugh. “You dated him.”

  Ava nearly choked. “Excuse me? Dated? Don’t rewrite my history like that, Lion King.”

  “You went out several times.”

  “Yes. For sex.” She pointed a finger at him. “Not dating. Never dating. Dating implies I respected him.”

  Leo’s ears twitched with embarrassment. “Fine. But you…”

  “He was a tool,” she said, standing and stretching her back. “A smug, self-important, politically obsessed tool… who, I will admit, knew his way around a bed. But that’s the one kind thing I can say about him.”

  Leo blinked. “Ava!”

  “What? You asked.” She shrugged, entirely unbothered. “You’re all weird about me being honest.”

  Leo looked away, mane fluffing awkwardly. “You don’t have to be that honest.”

  “Yes, I do. Someone around here needs to be,” she muttered, turning back to her screens. “And fuck you. It is not as if the base can’t hear you and Juno doing it on the roof now and again.”

  “WHAT?” The visible skin on his ear turned from pink to deep red as he flushed.

  “Anyway… “ Ava continued, utterly unfazed. “Corporal Vallerie thinks Kai’s angling to become the new Chief. I’d be fine if it was just a dick measuring contest. But his political game is messing with real lives.”

  Leo’s voice dropped, low and uneasy. “So we’re benched because of politics?”

  Ava paused, then nodded once. “Looks like it.”

  He exhaled slowly, shoulders tensing. “Ava… I can’t stay here doing nothing.”

  Ava’s expression softened, just a fraction.

  “I know. And it sucks. I’m helping Vallerie to get a clearer picture… So we wait.” She nudged his arm gently. “For what it’s worth? You’re not useless. Being here for Juno is part of the job too. And you work best with that hyena by your side.”

  Leo swallowed hard. “I just want him safe.”

  “We all do. The other guys back at the base keep sending me messages every five minutes asking for updates. I didn’t see the moose, just the recording, it scared the shit out of me,” she said, patting his arm again. “I’m glad to still have both of you here.”

  Leo smiled and rested his massive head against her smaller frame. Then he snapped to attention to the sound of someone clearing their throat.

  “Should I come back some other time?” A man in scrubs asked in a teasing tone, gazing at the two of them.

  “No,” Ava said.

  “Yes,” Leo grumbled.

  “Alright then,” the doctor smirked. “I’ll hold off informing you both that the hyena enforcer is waking up.”

  The lion shot upright so fast the wall rattled.

  “Wait! Come back here.”