The clinic building in Janace was commonly a quiet place. It largely looked like the other houses that Charlie, Sally, Jess, Nikole, Maurice, and Snowy had fixed up when they first moved there, though it was a bit bigger to allow for some of the more expensive medical equipment that went along with the new Chakat Industries and the obvious medical care for the Kats that lived there. Some of that had grown a bit as a few new Kats had moved there from other areas. It had in fact grown since when the town was founded, and that did not include the birth of kittens with every Kat there having at least one child that they were a mother to... and some like hirself were preparing to give birth to their second infants... or in Charlie's case, twins.
"Are you sure this will work?" Charlie said weakly from behind hir.
Jess looked back to see Charlie closely following with the new Ryles following hir and sniffing at her taur half. Charlie also looked a little uneasy with the former mundane Fennec sniffing at hir. Jess deeply regretted using hir pet as a guinea pig, but they didn't have much choice as the report was a surprise. It was strange how animals who's DNA had been used in the virus were effected, and that they were affected by the vaccine not the virus itself, but shi assumed that that was the result of the fact that the original virus combined human DNA with various animal DNA strands to create their new bodies. The thing that made Charlie seem the most uncomfortable was the fact that Ryles was sniffing at hir like Ryles had always done before transforming.
"Come on, Ryles," Jess called to hir, "Let Charlie be."
Ryles came over, fairly slowly, and seemed to experimentally rub hir hand along the side of Jess's body. Though Jess was not as round as Charlie, since the ultrasounds had shown that shi only had won kit inside her, whereas Charlie had two kittens, the belly on her taur half was round and she could feel every movement her unborn kit made. Ryles looked a bit startled by the sensation of feeling things through hir hands than through hir muzzle and gave a startled bark at it. Jess only responded by hugging hir transformed pet.
"We didn't have much choice," Jess answered, "and we can teach Ryles how to be a good Kat."
"Shi looks much older than us," Charlie answered, "Like twenty years older..."
"But shi also looks younger than shi was as a mundane fox," Jess answered, "and learning has nothing to do with age."
And Ryles did look younger than shi did when shi was a mundane Fennec. Ryles was not a newborn Fennec Fox kit when the Fee City outbreak occurred. Ryles was a fully mature Fennec Fox who had demonstrated, to Jess at least, all the same love and emotion Jess felt for Nikole. And over the six years at Janace, Ryles lived as the pampered pet of the Kats there. He played with Jess and with all the other Kats, though Jess always seemed to be the one he was closest to, but as the years went on, he did grow older and moved around less and less. In fact, much of his time before the test that turned Ryles into a Kat, Ryles spent most of his time sleeping. Jess had actually been preparing for the death of her beloved pet, now though, shi figured Ryles at least got a new lease on life.
Charlie only shrugged, "Okay... but we're all smart... shouldn't Ryles pick up on that as a Foxkat now?"
"Shi has the brain power to learn... but remember shi's only just gained that," Jess answered, "if you keep a human child or keep our kittens in a room and expose them to nothing but themselves... they will not instinctively know anything about the world in terms of language, culture, math... anything... they have all the capacity to learn, but with no prior experience... they still have to go through the process of learning..."
Charlie only blinked.
"It'll give our kittens something to do," Jess answered.
"What about Cairo?" Charlie than asked, "I do not like sending Midnight there alone. Shi could get hurt... some violent Kat or religious nut could go after hir! I know Sally and I adopted hir and Luna... but I love hir like Sally or I gave birth to hir! I don't want hir to die! I don't want hir to die!"
Jess noticed Charlie beginning to shake in a fit of nervous worry, and shi managed to turn hirself around and hug Charlie.
"Take it easy, Charlie," Jess answered and purred with all hir might to calm Charlie down, "We all love hir. Shi'll be fine. Maria went with her and shi'll be safe. Don't worry... you're only going to stress yourself... and in your present condition, doing that will only send you into labor earlier than you're likely going to anyway."
Charlie only hugged Jess back. Over the past six years, there had been enough Kat pregnancies to know that as with humans, a Kat bearing twins gave birth sooner than a Kat with a single kitten, and Charlie knew shi was carrying twins.
"Everything will be okay, Charlie," Jess purred and soon had a new voice speaking up.
"Are you okay, Mommy?"
They turned to see a pair of six year old Chakats. One looked like a six year old version of Charlie, but with a leopard's rosettes for its spots, the other was pink with white cheetah spots with leopard rosettes around them. It was Pinkie who had spoken, given the use of the word "mommy." While Kats had no individual gender, they could not be simultaneously father and mother to the same kitten. Charlie was Pinkie's mother and Janice's father, but both of hir children were there and looked nervous.
"I'm fine," Charlie said to Pinkie, letting go of Jess and going into full "mommy mode."
Charlie moved to them and got down on the "elbows" of hir forelegs and hugged Pinkie and Janice to hir.
"Mommy was just worried about your adoptive sithers," Charlie told them both.
"They'll be okay," Janice spoke up, "Don't worry, Dad. They'll be okay. Luna's a big gurl and even said we could be flower gurls when shi gets married."
"And Midnight's very smart," Pinkie added.
Jess only watched as the two six year olds purred and watched Charlie visibly relax.
"Okay," Charlie said, "but remember, mommy can never stop worrying about those shi loves."
"That's why we love you mommy/daddy," Pinkie and Janice said in nearly perfect unison.
"Come on... let's go back to the waiting room," Jess said to Charlie, "we'll need to go lie down and let the others know about Ryles and what's going on..."
"That was Ryles?" Janice asked looking up.
It was then that Jess knew that the new Foxkat had wandered off. Charlie got back onto hir four feet and they began to move toward the waiting room where Nikole and Maurice were resting. When they heard Nikole ask Ryles who he was, they tried to trot, but they had to slow down to make sure their swollen wombs didn't brush against the door frames.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"DAMN!" was all General Heroud growled as the report came in.
Sally, Snowy, Luna, and Lia both backed away at the display of anger.
"All of this was a distraction!" General Heroud answered, "They start a peaceful outbreak here and then start another violent one in Egypt... and BOTH need to be contained and dealt with."
"Thankfully, if what Miss Lia has said and what the human that came back with the Snow Leopard Chakat..." General Lawrence began.
"Mikkie, Mikkie was the Chakat and Sammy is hir sister," Sally answered, almost finding it odd to us a word to identify a specific gender after being a hermaphrodite with Charlie for over six years, having hir sister also be a hermaphrodite for more than six years, and having hir father be a Kat since the Paris outbreak.
General Lawrence nodded, finding it a little odd that the Kats always used first names when speaking to each other and even with many humans. They only used a surname when addressing someone in authority or when they only knew the surname. He wondered just how friendly they were with each other, but continued on.
"Given what we know here... it should be easy for us to control things here," General Lawrence answered, "if the Kats here will all take the Foxkat Vaccine willingly and you leave us with the formula for Foxkat and Justin Vaccines and apparently the Virus to vaccinate pets and animals we can go from there. If there are Kats that are violent... that area might be needed there as you can meet their force with force and without risk of infection..."
Snowy nodded, "We'll still need for Mikkie, Danna, Alexis, Flake to get back with Sammy and the zoo's blood samples..."
"Hopefully their quick," General Heroud answered.
"Is Egypt part of the international group?" Sally asked.
"They'll work with it," General Heroud answered, "the greater concern is that someone there might just decide to kill them all over there..."
"Wouldn't they have darts with the Foxkat Vaccine?" Luna asked.
"We've been trying to issue them, but that doesn't mean that everyone will use them," General Lawrence answered.
The others gave a heavy sigh.
"Umm..." Lia spoke softly.
All eyes turned to hir.
"Can I come with you?" Lia asked, "I have family and siblings in Egypt... and..."
"If they live in Cairo they might already be Kats," Sally warned, "and we're far enough away that even if they're not... they might be by the time we arrive."
"They actually live in Alexandria, but even if they were in Cairo... wouldn't you want to make sure they didn't become a victim if you were in my place?" Lia asked.
"When the outbreak hit Fee City in the beginning, my mate and I did exactly that," Sally said with a motherly smile, "though, the one I wanted to save was immune and chose to be Kat to help vaccinate against its spread..."
"A process that is going too slowly," Snowy lamented.
"So you do understand?" Lia asked.
"Yes," Sally nodded, "It's okay if you came with us."
"We'll also need to take the two cats that Alexis and Flake transformed in their lovemaking," Snowy added.