Nature calls

15 - Shawn/Kira

Waking up the next morning, I stretch my body and jump down from the branch I slept on. I see Toby sit at the firepit and he freezes when he sees me, but he doesn't look freaked out at all. I look at him curiously before I shift back to my human form.

Taking on my clothes, I walk over to him and sit down on a bench. "Have you seen me before?" I ask him. He just nods and so do I. "Have you been living in the forest for a long time?"

He shrugs. "For a while." That makes me even more curious, so I ask, "Why?" Shrugging again, he says, "I just... I needed a place to stay, and this felt like the safest place to be."

I slowly nod my head. With everything that's been going on, he's not wrong. Then I ask him, "Where's your parents?" He raises his shoulders in another shrug and whispers, "they died a long time ago." I slowly nod and swallow. It must be extremely hard to lose your parents at such a young age. "Don't you have any relatives?"

"No. And I didn't want to live with foster families, so I ran away."

Well damn. That takes a lot of courage to do that. Just like it did when Kira ran away from her foster family.

"Why didn't you want to live with them?" I ask. He sighs. "I didn't want to live with them because they would never understand. I'm a... I'm a shifter just like you." My eyebrows shoot all the way up to my hairline. "You're a panther?"

He shakes his head and says, "no, I'm a sheep." Despite everything that has happened, I can't help but smile a little. I've never heard about a sheep shifter before, and I find it kind of cute.

Then I look him over and ask, "Have you had a shower yet?" He shakes his head again. "No." Getting off the bench, I say, "Come on. You need one!" He rolls his eyes but still follows me into the house. I give him a clean t-shirt and a pair of boxer shorts that we'll fix with a belt so it will fit him.

Walking into the living room, I sit down next to Boe who's watching TV. "I'm sorry for your loss," he says, and I swallow.

"Thanks." I don't want to think about it. I don't want to think about that Kate is dead. I don't want to think about how it will affect Kira, so I say, "we need to get some groceries." He nods his head. "I just talked to Hillary about it and she agrees. I think that we should all go this time. Then we have more muscles, and we won't be easy to take down if they come after us again."

I hate to put everybody in danger but he's right. Besides, I don't think that we will see my father anytime soon and without him in the picture it's going to be a lot easier. I just wish I could stay here to look after Kira.

Akita comes into the living room and sits in a chair opposite us and asks, "so, we're all going to the grocery store today?" I nod. "Yeah. We really need some food."

We all get ready and get into our cars before we drive into town. When we get there, my jaw drops. Every single window in the houses is shattered. It must have been the blast from Kira's power.

We slowly drive to the store and get out of the cars. There's so quiet that it seems like a ghost town. I see Kate's flower shop next to the store and a lump form in my throat. The windows are blown out there too, so I go inside to see if I can find anything to board the windows and door shut with, but there's nothing.

My first priority right now is groceries though, so I go back out to the others. Hillary is standing outside, sniffling, so I wrap my arm around her shoulder and kiss her temple before we all go into the store to get everything we need.

When we're done, we drive home and I thank God or Goddess, or whoever is listening, that it went so smoothly. When we carry the first load of bags back to the house, I see Chloe sitting outside. When she sees us, she gets up and walk towards us.