Things went rather peacefully for most of Jackson's bachelor party. Some of the other officers did get into the beer a little too much, but my dad had already assigned designated drivers for the party among them, including himself. I didn't drink any alcohol out of preference. Not that I might have had trouble with it, as Molly and I had both gotten a little drunk at our own wedding, I just wasn't in the mood for it. And it probably wouldn't have been a good idea to have a five hundred fifty-five pound inebriated tiger running around one of Illinois' major cities.
I quietly enjoyed the wings that were put in front of me and managing to sip from a glass of water. A good many of the chicken bones ended up being crushed as I ate the wings and licked the sauce from the fur and pads on my hands and fingers. It made for a fairly enjoyable evening.
"How come you don't lap up the water?" an officer asked as I set down my water glass, which at the time was half full, "my cat at home laps up its water..."
"I can grip the glass like you can, and I can swallow like you can," I answered, "So I can drink like you can."
"Wouldn't instinct make you lap it up? Or want to?" the officer asked, clearly drunk, but I wasn't going to point that out to him.
"No," I answered, "and even if it did, my instincts do not control me."
He nodded for a moment, "Didn't you marry that gal that Changes guy wanted?"
"Molly, yes," I nodded, "she is currently with the "bride" of the wedding at the moment."
"How is she?" he asked.
"Doing well," I told him, "the two of us enjoy Columbia Falls fairly well. Lots of fresh air and open land. And the kids seem to love her at the school."
"She teaches out there?" a different officer asked.
"She's an aide there," I answered, "and the kids all like her."
The two officers nodded.
"Though, I would think we're here to celebrate another man's journey through life," I commented, "not get curious on mine."
The two officers nodded in agreement again.
"And what do you think, Jackson?" a third officer asked him, "what do you think of your last days as a free man? Soon you'll likely be in trouble for looking at someone with breasts that isn't a lioness... shoot, the chief and his son could get in trouble for being here already."
"Only if they find out," Jacob Wayne spoke, "So, I'm trusting you to keep your mouths shut on the subject."
"Yes, sir," was the response.
"You've all done a fine job with this party," Jackson said slowly, "though some of the theory of me being in trouble for looking at breasts may not be a problem..."
"What? Is Ms. Washburn tolerant of that sort of thing?" the first officer asked.
"Aren't lions naturally polygamous?" the second officer asked, "maybe this is an instinctual thing."
"Some of it is a matter of instincts, but not in the way you're thinking," Jackson said slowly, "Leona, when Changes bullied her into becoming a lioness, used the DNA of a male lion in the transformation. This is why she was able to keep her blond hair, but it also gave her the instincts of a male lion as opposed to that of a lioness."
"Is that a problem?" the third officer asked, "they don't control her."
"They don't control her, but they have left her... well... confused I guess would be the word," Jackson sighed, "it's put an awful lot of strain on her mind as she tries to sort out what instincts to follow... what instincts to ignore... and which ones are gender appropriate."
"Is there anything that can be done to help make it easier?" a fourth officer wondered curiously.
"The only thing that could probably help her would be for her to become a male lion," Jackson explained, "and then her instincts would match "her" gender."
"Good luck with that," the first officer answered while my father and I were silent.
"I would think it a good thing to go through with that," Jackson said slowly.
"To let her become a man?" the first officer questioned.
"Yes," Jackson answered.
"And you'd go out with another man?" the first man gasped.
"I would become a lioness to do it," Jackson admitted slowly.
There was a silence for a moment.
"I don't entirely agree with it... but if it helps her, I'd do it," Jackson said slowly.
"You'd leave it all behind?" the first officer gasped again.
"If it helped the one you love, wouldn't you do the same?" Jackson asked.
"I'm single, so... pansy ass queer, no," the first officer moved to get up.
I gave him a threatening growl. He sat down.
"You came here to celebrate a man's decision."
"I didn't come to celebrate a homo," the officer answered.
"Technically, he'd go from heterosexual male to heterosexual female," Jacob Wayne answered.
"It's still gay in my book," the man answered, still sounding drunk.
"It's odd, but..." the second officer commented, "you don't have to do this do you?"
"I don't have to do this... and I'm not entirely keen on it..." Jackson said nervously.
"So don't," the first officer answered, "get your balls together and say woman! You ain't doin' this and that's..."
He quit when I growled at him again.
"But," Jackson moved to finish his answer to the second officer, "if it helps Leona keep from going mad from battling a lion's instincts in a lioness' body, I'd do it to help her."
There was a silence for a moment.
"You're doing this to help her?" the third officer asked after a moment.
"Yes," Jackson sighed.
"You two must really love each other," the third officer answered.
"I'd probably do the same for my wife," a sixth officer spoke up.
"I'd do the same for Polly," Jacob commented.
"I've probably already done things similar for Molly," I nodded.
"For the ones you love?" the third officer asked again, "it seems like a very noble sacrifice, Jackson... Lamphere's homophobia aside."
The first officer went to say something again, but stopped as I gave him another low warning growl. I had already put up with enough of that sort of behavior while Beauregard and R.A.M. were still going strong. I wasn't about let that same behavior ruin another man's life before it could really start. It wasn't something that Molly and I fully approved of, but Jackson wasn't doing this because he wanted to be female or to be a lion. He was doing what he was doing to help Leona. To help the one he loved. And as the third officer said, it was a noble sacrifice. And with no other viable options, I wasn't about to let the wrong opinion win.
"I still think it's a stupid idea," the first officer, Lamphere, grumbled, taking a swig of his beer.
"I trust you can get along with Jackson, if and when he becomes Jacki?" Jacob Wayne questioned him in a much firmer tone then one would have expected for the party we were in.
"Of course, sir," Lamphere said slowly, not challenging my father and his boss.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
The rest of the evening went fairly quietly, all things considered. We kept the subject matter off of Jackson and Leona's future plans and that managed to keep things civil. Although, I tended to think that some of Lamphere's problem with what Jackson and Leona intended to do came from the amount of beer he had drunk, but I didn't know many of my father's officers all that well, so I didn't try to analyze into the partial altercation all that much.
It was nearly ten when Jacob Wayne and I returned to his home. I was feeling fairly tired from the amount of walking that Molly and I had done earlier in the day, but I wasn't out of it by any means.
"Well, that could have gone better," Jacob Wayne said after a moment after we made our way in.
"I apologize if my growling at Lamphere was out of place," I said weakly.
"I probably was in the sense of the restaurant's policy," Jacob Wayne sighed, "but to be honest, I think Lamphere deserved it."
I nodded as we both went in. We entered the house to find Molly and Frank Rhoer watching a news program, apparently following the "mudslinging" in relation to the elections coming in November.
"Evening," Jacob Wayne announced as we approached.
"It's night, dad," Molly chuckled, "but hello, all the same. How did the bachelor party go?"
"Fairly good," I commented, "How did you and Leona make out?"
"We ate a steakhouse out of house and home," Molly smirked like the proverbial cat that had swallowed the canary.
Jacob Wayne only shook his head and headed back toward his bedroom.
"I'm heading to bed," Jacob Wayne spoke, "I still need to get up early tomorrow."
"Good night, dad," I called after him with Molly echoing me.
"We should probably power down, too," I then commented to Molly as I approached her, "it's been a long day."
Molly slowly nodded and we began to head to the guest room.
"I'll turn the volume down," Frank Rhoer called after us, "though I don't think I'll be up too much longer."
We made our way into the guest room and began to get ready for bed. As we did so, Molly did ask about how things had gone. I did tell her about the near fight that had happened when Jackson explained his plan to help Leona, but I did leave out the parts about where we were, though Molly did seam to know.
"I guess ultimately things went fairly well," Molly quipped, "Leona's sister paid for Leona and I to eat about five pounds of steak, both beef and pork, each and your dad paid for you to eat Hooters out of hot wings."
"I..."
"Come on, George," Molly shook her head, "it was a bachelor party you went to. If your dad had arranged that no one would hire a stripper, where else would a bunch of single men go?"
"You're not mad?" I asked.
"Of course not," Molly answered, "they don't smell like me... just like other men don't smell like you."
"You think I smell attractive?" I wondered.
"You smell like a male tiger," Molly answered, "which my instincts find attractive. Just as your instincts will find a tigress to be attractive... it's partially why you got so jealous of the tigers and lions at the zoo. Your instincts didn't want to share your mate with them. Mine didn't want to share you with the few females that were there either."
"Odd how things have changed," I said with a shrug as we climbed into bed, "two years ago we would have told each other we looked good... now we say we smell good."
"You still look good, George," Molly nuzzled me.
"So what all did "the girls" do besides eat steak?" I asked.
"We discussed Leona and Jackson's plan too," Molly answered, "which created a different headache when the other bridesmaids then began to discuss the idea of becoming lionesses in a pride connected TO Leona..."
"I'm sure that made her feel well," I almost chuckled.
"She did turn down the offer," Molly shrugged, "and after that, it came into a discussion on how married life will be... which I don't think worked all that well, as I was the only married person there, and if Leona's plan goes well, "her" life in marriage will be closer to your life with me then my life with you... That's too confusing is it?"
"I don't think so..." I sighed.
"Anyway, I told her how nice it was to have you with me as my lover, my companion, my defender, and most importantly, my friend," Molly finished, "which was about all that I had."
"I don't think you could have done any more then that," I nuzzled her, "and you do smell good."
"You too, George," Molly chuckled.