Chapter Text
Rebecca Cunningham drummed her fingers on her desk in annoyance. It was well past time to close the office for the day. She had spent the afternoon catching up on paperwork and counting up the profits Higher for Hire was sure to make on the lucrative contracts that would come pouring in as soon as her latest business plan came to fruition. Now all that she was counting were the hours that her lazy good-for-nothing excuse for a pilot was running late. Four, so far.
Baloo was out on the first-ever direct cargo flight between Cape Suzette and Bismark, a small nation that was a big player in the international pastry trade. Every other airline had to make a stop to refuel in the middle of the transoceanic route, adding extra hours to their schedule and wasting fuel. If Higher for Hire could offer a direct flight, it would attract all sorts of new customers.
At least Rebecca could rely on one member of her flight crew. Kit had stayed behind on this run so that he could attend some kind of club meeting with his friends. He and Molly had been playing since he'd gotten back, giving her some precious uninterrupted hours to work.
She had little trouble tuning out the sound effects as the larger cub flew the smaller one around the room. Some distant part of her still felt like she should be concerned about the machine gun noises they were making - "effects on a young and impressionable mind", and all that - but after a few months of getting used to having Kit as a babysitter she'd stopped worrying about it.
At least the kids had something to keep them busy. She couldn't think of a single thing that she still needed to do in the office today. Everything was always in such disarray here, surely there was something she should be organizing, or cleaning, or something...
The clock read eleven. The sun had set hours ago. The stars were faintly visible above the glow of the city lights. Rebecca caught herself idly looking through the window.
For lack of anything better to do, she had started to draw up a schedule of the next three weeks' worth of deliveries. It occurred to her that none of her schedules had ever lasted more than two days before. She was wasting time, because Baloo still wasn't back yet, and she had meant to be here when he got back. It seemed that wasn't going to happen. She'd have to wait until tomorrow to chew him out.
"Hey kids, wrap it up", she called across the room.
"But Mommy, we still have to save Lucy from the pirates!" Molly protested.
"You've already had all evening to play", Rebecca replied, "and it's way past both of our bedtimes."
Kit's disappointed expression turned thoughtful as his eyes flitted between the stuffed animals standing guard across the room, the table that Molly was standing on, and the model planes in both of his hands. "Give us just five more minutes?"
"Okay", Rebecca replied as she started packing her purse, "five minutes".
In the next five minutes and thirty seconds, half of the pirates went down in a blaze of machine gun fire and a million-billion more were slapped out of the air with a spatula. Danger Woman freed Lucy from their evil lair in the boiler room, they rode off in the Dangermobile (which could fly now), and everyone lived happily ever after until next time.
Kit pulled the colander-helmet off of Molly's head and presented her to her mother at the door. "She's all ready to go, Miz. Cunningham."
"You're sure you're okay staying here by yourself, Kit?"
"A' course I am. It's not the first time Baloo's been a few hours late."
She bent down to hug him - Kit fumbled with the colander to get it out of the way - waved goodbye, and left with Molly to hail a cab.
Kit locked the door behind them and turned off the lights downstairs. He expected to be by himself for another few hours. Baloo didn't have his navigator around to keep him on task, and this was a Tuesday, so he'd be at Louie's well past midnight. Kit hadn't said anything to Miz. Cunningham because Baloo already had enough trouble coming for him the next time she saw him.
He wished she would stop worrying about him so much. He'd been fine the last time he'd been here alone, and the time before that, and the time before that. Just because he was a kid that didn't mean he couldn't take care of himself. He winced with embarrassment as he realized that she'd been in earshot for the whole game earlier. He'd never admit out loud that he enjoyed playing pretend with Molly, but he was pretty sure that Miz. Cunningham and Baloo had both figured it out anyway.
As Kit brushed his teeth and climbed into bed, he reviewed the latest adventure of Danger Woman in his head. Next time, the floor would be ice, not lava. The Dangermobile wouldn't be able to get traction and they'd have to use the Danger-Skis and go down the banister, which would be a hill in the Himalayas. If there was going to be snow, he might as well sneak in a villain based on Colonel Spigot. Wait, no, Molly had met Colonel Spigot and he didn't want to dig up bad memories... although she had seemed okay afterward, so it would probably be fine...
Of course that wouldn't be tomorrow; he and Baloo had an appointment with a planeload of durians. Neither of them was looking forward to it. Did they make something like earplugs for your nose? Anyone who could figure out a better way of hauling smelly cargo would make a fortune.
He drifted off to sleep thinking about transporting a whole flock of gorilla birds with Baloo, but this time with the proper protective equipment, laughing in their invincibility and breathing through their mouths.
The next morning, Kit woke up with the sunrise and groggily turned to face the bed next to his. It was still empty.
Thoughts came slowly as he blinked back the confusion. He didn't remember there being any overnight runs on the schedule. No, yesterday was Bismark, so today should be durians, then mangoes after that. Right now he should be prying Baloo out of bed.
He rolled to the floor, pulled on his sweater, and set out to see what was up.