Page 118 of Fish in a Barrel

“No,” Jackson said, laughing. He flipped the creature onto his back and began playing with his tiny paws. “But I think he wants us.”

As the kitten played, he began to meow. Not pitifully, just… vocally. Half meows, full meows, half purrs. A volley of cat sounds erupted from him as Jackson played, and Ellery laughed, sticking out a finger to rub the black fur. He was still a little spiky from kittendom, but in a few weeks he’d be a sleek mini-panther.

The kitten snagged Ellery’s finger and began gnawing on it, keeping up the monologue the entire time.

“My God, he’s chatty,” Ellery said in wonder. “Does he ever shut up?”

“Probably only when he’s sleeping,” Jackson told Ellery, laughing. “See?”

The gnawing eased up, but the kitten kept talking, only licking Ellery’s finger now.

“I thought I was going to choose!” Ellery protested—but not hard. He had to admit this guy was pretty attractive.

“Well, you can,” Jackson said, indicating all of the other kittens in the enclosure. “There’s five more in there, and while the tiger stripe there appears to have the personality of oatmeal, the two orange toms over there are promising.”

The black kitten kept licking his finger, finally wrapping all his little kitten limbs around Ellery’s hand in contentment.

And once he wasn’t partially tucked against Jackson’s chest, that’s when Ellery noticed.

“One of his back legs,” he said.

“Yeah, I saw.” He heard the forced nonchalance in Jackson’s voice, and his heart hurt.

One of the kitten’s back legs was stunted—probably circulation had been cut off in the womb. A vestigial, withered back paw hung there, and a competent vet would probably remove it just to get it out of the way.

“He’s perfect,” Ellery said with awe. “He… he’s us.”

“He’s you,” Jackson said, so much affection in his voice Ellery couldn’t take offense. “Like you were yesterday. Just kept talking, making sense, fighting the good fight, until those assholes kneeled before you.” Jackson looked at him happily, green eyes soft and admiring. “You were fucking awesome.”

Ellery gave half a laugh. “Jackson, you drove Tetley to confess. In fact, you made him jump on top of Cly, and thenClypretty much admitted guilt by beating on him. I mean, I may have cut through the bureaucracy, butyoucut through the crap.”

Jackson shrugged and looked away. “Think Tetley will be charged?” he asked, and Ellery’s chest ached.

Yeah, Ellery had seen the similarities between Jackson and the young ICE agent too.

“No,” Ellery said softly. “He had his suspicions, but Cly never trusted him enough to confess to what he’d been doing. Tetley turned over their visitation logs and highlighted the women he thought Cly might have been abusing, but he was….” Ellery shook his head. “Destroyed. Realizing what his partner had been doing, being forced to be a party to it? Once you connected the dots, he was… he’ll probably never work law enforcement again.”

Jackson grunted. “He should have seen,” he said at last.

“He thought he was working for the good guys,” Ellery reminded him. Just like Jackson, Tetley had been used and disillusioned.

Unlike Jackson, Tetley might end up a salesclerk in a gas station or doing something else that required little responsibility and less power. Tetley had been appalled, but he hadn’t been strong.

“He wouldn’t have done what you did,” Ellery continued, taking the kitten from Jackson and smiling as the little goober curled up in the crook of his elbow and started to purr. “You were strong enough to see, Jackson. You were strong enough to fight back.”

“Well, you didn’t come along to save me until much later,” Jackson said mildly.

“You didn’t need saving,” Ellery told him. He was still tired from the day before, and as they situated themselves back on the carpeted wooden box, he leaned his head a little on Jackson’s shoulder. “Just some training up.”

Jackson laughed a little. “So,” he said. “That one?”

“Do you think Billy Bob will like him?”

Jackson kissed Ellery’s temple. “I think this one will talk him to death if he doesn’t.”

Ellery chuckled and let that vibrating little heat source pulse relaxation through his body.

“What should we name him?”