Chapter Text
"Why do you have to leave?" Alicia asked again.
"If I don't leave how can my 'cousin' come in as a replacement?" Elic asked.
"But a whole month?"
"You know I have to go. I can't stay 16 forever, I either have to go or change, and then I wouldn't be the Angel anymore."
Alicia frowned.
"Mom!" Steve ran up. "Lyssa is saying she's going to operate on Pud!"
Alicia rolled her eyes.
"Another fire to put out," she sighed.
"I thought you had Ali put the knives in his lamp," Elic said.
Ali was Alicia's genie. Even though she had freed him, he said that a jinn without a job would fade away.
"If I don't put both feet down, she'll break something and Ali isn't a very good babysitter, he's too used to obeying orders."
Elic couldn't dispute that.
"Good luck," he told her. He headed outside.
Hanging out in the backyard, where an addition had been built where the old standalone garage used to be, was one of Alicia's self-appointed guardians. Oso was tinkering with the car Elic used.
"You leaving now, Angelo?" Oso asked.
"'Fraid so," Elic replied.
He had been telling the Los Lobos for over a month that he was leaving. He claimed it was family business and that his younger cousin would be coming down to live with Alicia and learn to do Lion's Den business. He would get called out of town sometimes, just like he had been.
"You want to drive me to the Den or have someone get the car later?"
"No, I can't go. Leon is down at Senor David's helping him with his car and Paco is down at the school crossing to help Abuela with the ninos."
Elic had actually known the others would be busy just then; it was why he had chosen to leave now.
"That's fine, I'll leave the keys at the Den. You be sure to be nice to my cousin."
Elic climbed behind the wheel as Oso closed the hood.
It had taken a lot of convincing that Elic's car needed to not look too great either with the exterior or the interior. He had compromised with the engine. Under the hood, the original four-cylinder engine had been replaced with a V-6 that barely fit. Elic had power under the hood that he seldom used. He honestly poked along trying to look for all the world like a not too well-off teen with a junker to get around in.
He headed off, avoiding the school zone to avoid Poco. Elic knew all the streets pretty well, even when he didn't regularly drive them.
He was almost out of the area when he spotted a girl about ten with a younger boy leaning over a drainage cut in the curb.
He sensed they were upset.
Elic parked the car and came back to them.
"What's wrong?" he asked. He stood back to give them enough space to, hopefully, make them feel safe. He hoped it was nothing worse than a lost toy.
"There's a kitty," the boy said. He pointed down the drain.
He was younger than Elic had first thought. The girl, on the other hand, was probably at least ten, maybe even a bit older.
"Phil, we're not to talk to strangers," she told him.
"Yes, you shouldn't talk to strangers," Elic agreed. "Are you sure it's a kitty?" he asked.
The girl frowned at him.
"We heard it meowing," the boy told him.
Elic crouched down on the other side of the drain from them. He heard the kitten cry.
Oh great, he thought to himself.
He stretched out on the street and looked inside the drain. There was no kitten in sight.
"Where are your folks?" Elic asked.
"Work," Phil replied.
"Phil!"
Elic got up and looked around. Some drains had access "manhole covers" but no luck today.
"Could you run home and call 311?" he asked the girl.
"Why?" she asked.
"If I can't get the kitten to come out, the city will probably have to get into the drain," he told her.
Elic could actually get the kitten out, but he didn't want to do it in front of the children.
"Oh. Come on Phil," she held her hand to her brother.
"But I wanna save the kitty," he protested.
Elic sat up and looked at the boy.
"I know you do, and the best way is to go with your sister and call for help," he told him.
Phil gave him a surprised look. He took his sister's hand. They walked over to a tree and got a small dog on a leash from it.
Elic had no idea how he'd missed the dog.
Assured they were gone, he turned back to the drain.
Now, instead of just verbally calling, he mentally called the kitten.
It was closer than he had feared, but younger than he had hoped.
He jogged back to his car and got the reacher he kept in the trunk. He returned to the drain. He reached in, and with the extra couple of feet with the reacher, he was barely able to reach the bottom.
Now he had his 'alibi' covered. He reached out mentally to calm the kitten. He sent thoughts of 'mother' and 'milk' and 'safe.' He also sent the 'come this way' thoughts.
The kitten started creeping toward the light. It was hungry and scared.
Elic kept sending reassurances to the kitten, encouraging it every step.
He finally spotted a nose and ear.
"Come on, little one," he said softly.
He glanced around, afraid that someone might get there before he made his grab. He could see the girl and her brother coming back, but they were still far enough away if he did it quickly.
He leaned in, holding the reacher in one hand. He stretched out his arm in the inhuman way he could and gently picked up the kitten.
He pulled up a bit and pretended to juggle the reacher so it seemed he was taking the kitten off the device but was actually getting his arm back to a normal size.
Then he sat up, cradling the kitten with one hand and holding the reacher with the other.
"He got it!" Phil yelled. He tried to run up. His sister held on, keeping him at her side.
"We called the police," Phil called.
Elic shifted around and pulled himself up so he was sitting on the curb.
"I did what you said, mister," the girl told him.
"Thanks," Elic said. "I managed to get the kitten to come to where I could catch her with my reacher." He waved his hand at the long thing with a handle on one end and a clasper on the other laying on the grass next to him.
About that time Elic saw a police car come around the corner a block down.
"Can I touch him?" Phil asked.
"No," his sister said. Elic could sense that she really wanted to pet the kitten too but wasn't going to take a chance of getting close to a stranger.
"If you are very gentle you both can pet her," Elic told them.
"How do you know it's a girl?" the sister asked.
"Well, her coloring is a calico, and almost all calicoes are girl cats," Elic explained.
He split his attention between the children and the police officer who had just arrived.
Tom Johnson got out of the patrol car.
Elic knew almost all the officers in Bellaire because Alicia lived next door to the retired police chief.
"Angelo," Corp. Johnson greeted him by the Spanish version of his 'street' name the Lobos called him.
"Corporal," Elic replied. "I asked them to call 311."
"They did, but Jill put out a general call to see if anyone was in the area. I was a couple of blocks away and said I'd check it out.
"I should've known you were involved."
"Hey!" Elic protested. "These kids are the ones who heard the kitten."
"It was Pepe," the boy said.
"Pepe?" the officer looked at the boy.
"He's our..."
The girl yanked his hand.
"I'm sorry," she said politely. "My name is Sandy Simpson, this is my brother, Phil, Phillip.
"We were walking Pepe, our dog, when he jumped into the street and started barking down the drain.
"I... I pulled him back on the grass, but Phil said he heard something.
"I tied Pepe to that tree over there," she pointed at the tree about twenty feet away, "and we could hear the kitty better."
"We called the kitty," Phil interrupted.
"And that's when this guy came up to us."
"Sissy was afraid," Phil interrupted again.
"They've been told to not talk to strangers," Elic interjected.
Elic could almost hear Johnson's thought that they didn't get much stranger than he was.
"I said I'd keep trying to get the kitten while they called for help."
"And the kitten came out for you."
Elic shrugged.
"Can we keep it?" Phil asked.
"Phil!" Sandy said.
"I'm sorry, Phil," Elic said. "This is a very young kitten. She can't eat regular food yet. She needs someone who can feed her a bottle every two or three hours for at least another week or two.
"Still, if you are gentle, you can give her a pet." Elic invited again.
With Corp. Johnson there, Sandy finally dropped her guard enough. Both children gave the kitten very gentle strokes.
Elic got up and went back to his car.
Johnson let the children have a quick look at his car. He even let Phil turn on his siren for a moment.
He walked up to where Elic was settling the kitten in the passenger seat.
"I'm going to give the children a ride home, are you going to take care of the kitten?"
"I'm leaving town today, but I figured I'd swing by Alicia's vet and give her a call while they check out the kitten."
"I'll call dispatch and tell them the situation is taken care of."
"Thanks." Elic gave him one of his bright smiles. "My cousin is coming to be the new Angel, please be nice to him."
Johnson laughed. "We're always nice, Angel," he stressed the word hard. "The chief would have us drummed out of the force if we weren't."
A couple of hours later Alicia's daughter, Lyssa, had a real patient to try out her bedside manners on.