A Late Picnic

by Mr. David R. Dorrycott

Kristi studied the 'new' swimsuit Merry had just put on. It was a two piece true, but the top draped far over the chipmunk's hips making it look as if she were wearing a short dress. To top it off, it was black. "Our last full day here and your wearing THAT?" she asked.

Merry looked down, a habit she'd afflicted after her brutal mauling. Even now she rarely looked Kristi eye to eye and then only for brief seconds. "Its a swimsuit" she half mumbled. "I just don't want to attract attention."

Kristi sighed. "Right... Look, I'm going to teach you how to windsurf today. How's your hand?"

Merry held up her crippled right hand, flexing it a little. "Okay I think, it doesn't hurt much today." The skunk watched Merry's face as she flexed the twisted hand. No, she didn't grimace as much, either Merry was getting used to the pain or it really was better. Then it'd been an abnormally warm night...

Two hours later a soaked Kristi was beginning to lose her patience. "Its easy, do it like I showed you." She watched from a distance, glad they were in a current. Merry had fallen just right once, her foot catching a point just below her navel. That'd started a chain reaction that had filled the sea with a yellow sheen that stank. Even the fish were still staying away. To Kristi's surprise Merry hadn't reacted like she'd expected. True, she'd wrinkled her nose, breathed through her mouth for a short time. Yet after she'd stopped coughing, stopped fighting for breath all she'd said was "Effective." Totally different from anyone else's reaction. As Kristi waited Merry pushed herself out of the water, pulling herself into a sitting position.

Even soaked her heavy swimsuit managed to camouflage well what lay under it. Merry had put on weight, was now near what she'd been when they'd first met. If she'd worn what Kristi had wanted her too there would have been a thousand pair of eyes locked on the copper sheathed woman. Instead a few people glanced over, saw it was two furrys and both female thus probably harmless to their children and returned to their own fun.

"I can't do this" Merry argued.

"Yes you can" Kristi laughed, watching her stand shakily on the board. "Now balance and stand up, hold the..."

SPLASH....

Kristi swam over to the wind surfing board, waiting for her drowned friend to come up. Over an hour of trying with no success. Maybe the chipmunk was right, but if a skunk could learn.... Merry's ancestors were tree dwellers. Both sides, while Kristi's dug holes in the ground. A copper-red head surfaced beside her, normally fluffed fur glued tightly to her skull by warm salt water. She spit out a mouth full of warm salty water, shoved her hair back out of her eyes and pressed the water from her facial fur. Giving her companion a look that made it obvious she had had enough Merry moved over to the evil device. "I can't do it" she sputtered, shaking her head to rid herself of more water.

Kristi acknowledged defeat, "Fine" she agreed, "We'll wash up and get a boat then. I assume you can lay flat in a boat?" The look she got would have shattered the strongest metal. Shrugging Kristi stood up, grabbing the boards tow rope. They were only in a little over four feet of water anyway.

Three hours later a much dryer pair of women were coasting slowly along, nothing but the sound of waves around them and a portable tape player belonging to Kristi. "I'm afraid of unstable ground" Merry suddenly admitted. "Always have been."

"Should have known" Kristi sighed, turning away from a small islet that would be a magnet for others like them. "Family trait?"

"Species" Merry admitted. "Trees are one thing but if it moves under my feet like that board... Up, down no friction at all. Nothing to grab hold of to steady yourself... No way. Stomach balls up, bladder screams and I start going left when I should be going backwards. Messy." Kristi just smiled, it was the most Merry had said at one time since she'd shown up.

"I'm taking us out to the sand banks, we'll anchor and do a little nude sunbathing" Kristi laughed as the tiny sailboat responded lively under her command.

Merry looked up, startled. "Nude? I thought you were kidding" she said, suddenly a little frightened.

"Don’t worry" Kristi consoled. "I'll make certain no ones around. I even brought a lunch basket. Just think, a picnic without ants."

"No one?" Merry asked. "I really could use the warmth. My hands not the only part of me that hurts."

"No one" Kristi promised, dropping the subject. "So what are your plans when we get back?"

"I'm going away" Merry said suddenly. "Canada. For a year or two. Maybe longer. At least until the heats off." She ducked as the boom swung when the ship turned. "They made a report, people are going to know. The wrong people."

"And running is always the answer?"

"No" Merry admitted. "Its the wrong answer. If... If I was still the woman you knew I'd fight. But now I don't think I could stand up to them. I still have nightmares. I still wake up screaming."

"I know that" Kristi agreed. "Look, Gomez told me how you've helped in that serial rape case of his. He say's you've cut weeks of work out, even pointed out things his task force hadn't noticed. They want you as part of their team. He asked me to convince you. I can't do that Merry, but I promised I'd tell you. When the time was right."

"I can't, I'm... I'mmm..."

"We don't care if our civilian advisors are upright citizens or reformed murders Merry. Everyone on the force admits that dishonorable is a lie. Even Parker, and he hates furries. Its better pay, a desk, access to everything. You'd be able to get a place of your own, a place to call home not just a couch to sleep on. Its a lot more responsibility yes, but you'd be doing what you love. Just not carrying a badge and gun. And you'd be part of a team."

Merry looked away, watching their wake. Kristi's offer was tempting, to work again even as an advisor... But move out of Kristi's place? She'd grown accustomed to her friends sharp scent, had... Achingly soft images of the skunk half dressed came to mind, nights sitting together watching television or more often just talking shop. The rare touch, Kristi's odd humor. She finally had to admit what she really wanted wasn't a couch in someone's living room. Her heart ached, she dared not speak or look back to her friend for long minutes. Leave that? She released a long slow breath, splashing at the water with her good left hand. Gods Kristi ought to be able to taste her feelings so strong her heart beat. "That's it though" she finally replied. "I can do without a gun, never really liked using it. But... Oh Gods Kriss I want to be a cop again so damn bad it hurts."

"It's a start. Think about it" Kristi admitted, completely missing the reason for her friends tenseness. She glanced over the side, they'd reached a shoal, maybe two meters of water between them and the sandy bottom below. A tug of the rope and their triangular sail fell. Lazily she tossed over their anchor, watching though crystal waters as it fell. A puff of sand marked contact. Standing she helped Merry stow their sail.

"A picnic in the middle of no-where" the chipmunk laughed. "Only a skunk would think of it."

'She laughed' Kristi realized. 'After so long she laughed.' Knowing it'd be a mistake to mention it she dug out the basket, a standard red & white blown plastic cooler actually. Its well known brand name molded right into the slick surface it'd float if tossed over, even full of food and wine. Setting things out she handed Merry a bottle. "Open this will you?"

Merry studied the bottle. "Wine? On a picnic?"

"Wine not?" Kristi asked with a smile.

Merry groaned at the pun, taking the offered corkscrew she slowly began extracting the bottles cork. "Not Canada" Kristi decided.

"Why not?" Merry asked as she twisted the cork, urging it up gently.

"Because I've got an Uncle in Arizona. Big place, lot of space. You can see a fly coming from miles. And its a heck of a lot warmer than Canada. Who do you know in Canada anyway?"

"Japanese Embassy made me an offer" Merry admitted, setting cork & corkscrew aside. "Free room, board as long as I want to stay. Simple work. I was heading there when..." She went silent, handing Kristi the bottle.

"No way your getting into the hands of those people" Kristi snapped. "Your 'duties' would make a fifty year old prostitute look virginal. Once you walked through those gates you'd vanish. Probably end up in some minor officials slave pen back home. Offer" she shorted angerly. "Slavery is more like it."

"I'd be alive."

"You'd be better off dead" Kristi snapped.

Merry looked up, studying Kristi's black & white furred face. "Any life is better than death Kristi. Not when there's nothing after death. I'd live in a Saudi zoo before I'd kill myself."

"Now there's a change" Kristi announced to the world. "Three days ago you were trying to kill yourself, now your saying you'd rather live as an exhibit animal in a zoo than die. What happened?"

"I think.. I think I woke up" Merry admitted, accepting a tall plastic glass of wine. "How's your foot."

"Itches like crazy. Just flesh cuts, nothing deep. Enough to bleed like crazy, but as long as I keep my foot clean it'll heal without a scar."

"Your lucky. It could have been a lot worse."

"You could have died."

Merry started, choking slightly on her drink. "That's twice I saved your life, twice you saved mine. Lets call it even okay?"

Kristi smiled. "Fine by me, I never kept count anyway. Let me dig out the sandwiches, their only tuna. Had to take what was left. Furries don't rate high, not even paying police officers." She lifted a plastic platter from her basket, a still warm freshly cooked duck lay hidden under its foil wrapping.

Two long hours later both women lay on their small ships flotation pillows, "Nice apple pie" Merry sighed, patting a full stomach.

Kristi laughed. "If I'd known you were a vegetarian.."

"I'm not, you did, the duck was delicious." She almost purred, laying prone she released the clasps on her swimsuit, pushing the heavy black cloth away to allow the sun full reach of her battered body. After all Kristi had seen her furless, which was worse. Could have done anything to her, didn't. Long runs of thinner, paler fur that indicated her scars shown almost invisible in the brilliant sunlight. Merry was content, even her new dental work had finally worked in and after Kristi's accident she knew where she stood. Not that she was comfortable yet being in love with a woman. She'd never... Merry pushed the thought aside. A lifetime of saving herself destroyed in seconds. 'Should have slept around' she thought to herself.

Laying back she simply enjoyed the boats gentle rocking, hot sun beating on her copper fur, slowly bleaching highlights into it. For the first time in... she found she couldn't remember how long... she felt.. attractive. Wanted. Kristi's sudden movement caused her to open her eyes in concern. "What's up? Pie-rats?"

"No" Kristi laughed. "I've got to check the GPS to make sure we haven't drifted too far."

"Oh, okay." Merry yawned, stretched and mummered as she fell back into a near sleep. Explained, Kristi's movements were easy to ignore. If anything were wrong she trusted the skunk enough not to worry. Besides the sun was baking her hand, loosening it up like it hadn't been since.. since before the injury. Even its constant pain was gone.

Kristi indeed did check the GPS. They'd drifted less than a dozen feet over the last two hours. 'Good anchor' she decided, picking up a pair of binoculars she'd brought along. A careful scan of the ocean and air showed them alone. Even a high powered boat would take ten minutes to reach them, another sailboat half an hour. Setting her glasses down she looked back at her friend and smiled. Nude now Merry lay fully exposed to her, to the sun. Her copper fur seemed to glow, the scar lines almost invisible from this angle. All that marred her view was a crippled hand, a hand that hadn't complained since they left the docks. Forgetting that, Kristi could almost believe it was the old Merry laying there, the Merry who loved what she was and loved proving it. Reaching behind her she released her own swimsuit's straps. As she moved towards the impromptu sun-bed they'd thrown together she felt its two sections fall away.

Merry's first indication anything was out of the ordinary was when Kristi's fingers ran through her cheek fur. "Huh?" she asked, opening her eyes. Above her were the deepest, darkest set of eyes she'd ever seen. "Kristi?" she asked.

"Shhhh. Its all right" the skunk answered. Merry's following question was stilled by Kristi's kiss. Under the skunks touch Merry stiffened a moment, then melted against her friend. Her love.