DISCLAIMER: I own nothing and no recognizable characters from Hellboy. I am just a poor college student who also happens to be a rabid fan and this just happens to be a fanfiction that my mind came up with that I feel like sharing with other fans. I make absolutely NO money from this fanfic. It is merely for fun and hopefully the enjoyment of other fans. Please don't sue and fans please enjoy.

Chapter 23: Story of a Girl

(This is just the last few lines from Chapter 22 marking where we left off [would suggest rereading the other chapters if you have time but if you don't here's a reminder to hopefully jog your memory(s) of what just happened in the last chapter which I wrote so awfully long ago]: A small smirk found its way on Clay face as he remembered the past. "Hey Abe," he said his smile growing a bit bigger. "Remember how Kit got in?")

"Oh lord… wasn't that just a mess." Abe too found himself with a slight if tired smile as he recalled the memory from not all that long ago.

William studied the two BPRD agents curiously as the silence stretched on for a moment or two. "Your going to make us ask, aren't you?" The old soldier finally said lightly, sitting back in his chair. The atmosphere in the room had already shifted from grim to something a little lighter despite the silence that might have been just a touch awkward. As the thought crossed the old medic's mind he glanced casually over to see that even Martha seemed more comfortable and relaxed since the discussion had shifted. Good, William thought letting his eyes move back to the Icthyo sapien.

"Oh yes sorry," the IS was saying to his audience gesturing with one hand at nothing in particular. "Of course you don't know. I mean how could you know? It's not like you where there or–"

"Abe," Clay cut into his partners speech, from where he stood leaning against the wall.

Abe looked at the man. "Hum?"

"You're babbling," Clay answered bluntly.

"Well how would you describe it?" The Icthyo sapien asked resting he head on his hands, not offended in the least. "I mean it's not like she did anything wrong… I mean, not really… Well maybe technically…"

Clay waved Abe into silence and looked directly at the two other now thoroughly confused people at the table. "Kit appeared unexpectedly inside our main base..."

"That doesn't seem that strange," William said still not getting the significance of what Clay was saying.

"Yah well," Clay continued. "That's before you realize to do that she would have to get past our security… without setting off any alarms OR anyone seeing her."

"What Clay is trying to say," Abe picked up after a beat noticing the continued confusion of the others. "Is that Kit broke into our most highly guarded, supposedly top-secret facility in, what we guess, under thirty minutes. Theoretically, her simply being in the facility, since she was unauthorized, was supposed to set off about half a dozen alarms, but somehow she didn't set off one. And no one saw how she got in. Even now no one but her really knows how she did it."

"Wait a minute," Martha said, her brow furrowed as she finally started to get what was being said. "You mean like broke in, broke in?"

"Not that little girl!" William was flabbergasted. While Kit did have cat ears and a tail she looked about as dangerous as a fly… Seriously she didn't even look like she was out of her teens yet!

"Yup," Clay nodded. "Somehow 'that little girl' managed to get though locks, scanners, lasers, cameras and a dozen other security instruments you only think would exist in science fiction."

"You're kidding… her?!"

"U-huh," Abe affirmed Williams started question with a slight nod of his own. "We speculate Kitikara was on her way to becoming a pretty high class thief before she came to us. Since then we have learned, for certain mind you, that she can pick locks and hotwire most any vehicle in existence… Not to mention what she can do with those knives of hers…"

"Knives?!"

"Oh oops…" Abe looked away from Martha's outburst, a little uncomfortably. "I probably shouldn't have said anything about that."

"Okay, slow down a minute here," Martha said her voice somehow catching everyone's attention. "Your telling us that… that barely a few months ago Kitikara was a thief?

"Little miss kitty?," Clay asked with a raised eyebrow. "Yup. Most probably. You bet. And a pretty good one at that since she could break through our security so easily. And because we can't find any record on her so she obviously was never caught."

"Why?" Martha asked bluntly. "I mean she seems like such a good girl…"

"And she is." Abe said quietly catching the redhead hazel gaze with his own. "She is a good person. Believe me. I've checked… but well… for a lot of people who aren't – aren't 'fully' human, life can be a little tough. Sometimes, you've got to do what you've got to do…"

Abe left it at that.

Martha sat back in her chair thinking. She thought of the perky little catgirl and then the career she might have been headed for if she hadn't gone to the BPRD. Maybe becoming an 'agent' wasn't as bad an alternative as she had originally supposed it would be. "Kit a thief…That's surprising." The redhead finally said after a moment.

"So what actually happened?" William asked quickly as he felt the conversation take a darker turn yet again.

"Well one morning, what was it? Two weeks ago?" Abe questioned Clay who nodded the affirmative back. "Kit was found just wandering around the main entryway or 'great hall' as some call it of our supposedly top secret main facility. Somehow she managed to get past the theoretically 'perfect' security system. Then she started to point out all the holes in the system to the first person she saw. Unfortunately that man was the same one who, I guess, you could loosely call our boss and who is known for having a relatively bad temper… Especially in the morning..." Abe paused to take a breath then, before continuing with a soft smile.

"That man, Manning, tried to have her kicked out, she was 'unauthorized' after all, but it didn't work. Within the hour of the security guards 'escorting' her out, Kit was back. And despite what Manning could do, including having her thrown out a few more times and even locked in a room once, she literally followed him around the rest of the day."

"We thought it was hilarious," Clay muttered from the background. "Watching the hyper orange one bobbing behind the old heel all day. I don't think I've ever seen Manning run that fast before or since trying to get away from someone…"

"Quite," the Icthyo sapien agreed with a full and warm smile before continuing the tale. "Finally in the evening Kit mentioned something like 'Oh by the way: I would like to become a BPRD agent.' Manning didn't even ask how she knew about our supposedly 'secret' agency. The agreement turned out to be something like as long as she left him alone he would let her in and so here she is with us as a 'probationary' trainee. Overall, let's just say little Kit's methods to get our attention were a bit… unorthodox."

"And what about Gabriel then?" Martha asked, hoping the young man's tale would also be somewhat upbeat.

"Gabriel…" Abe hesitated and the smile fell from his face. "He just appeared one day asking for one of our… colleges, a BPRD founder, that… that is no longer with us."

It was plain by the tone of the Icthyo sapien's voice that whomever Abe was talking about was no longer among the living. And that that person was still greatly missed. If anyone had taken the time to look at Clay's face at that same moment, they would have seen an uncharacteristic sadness in the man's eyes as the looked sorrowfully at the floor. "Gabriel," Abe continued softly. "Said he wanted to an agent and after learning he didn't really have anywhere else to go, it was decided that he could also become a trainee."

"You know," Clay said quietly to Abe, looking at the Icthyo sapien with a serious look which had replaced the smile that had graced his face a few seconds ago. The man pushed away from the wall he had been leaning against and sitting with the others at the table, his eyes still only looking at Abe. "He's the reason you were assigned to a simple training mission instead of your… normal operations."

"They can do without me for a while. Other people can have the glory of saving the world as long as we can get a chance to save Gabriel from his past…" The Icthyo sapien said quietly back to his partner as Martha and William looked on knowing they where missing something but also knowing that it was private and so they did not ask.

"So what were you guys doing around here?" William asked as the silence stretched again within the room.

Abe considered the question for a moment wondering whether or not he should answer it or not. Technically agents weren't supposed to answer civilian questions, but it wasn't as if the mission had been too spectacular or anything... it was for training after all.

Well," the Icthyo sapien began to explain slowly. "There was this haunted house down the coast a little ways that was deemed safe enough for trainees."

"Usually, you see," Clay said, easily picking up the topic. "There are two trainers for every one trainee but since the Bureau has been a little short handed of late, lots of people out on important missions and all, me and Abe got so lucky as to be stuck with two trainees… Not that's it's been all that hard. For Kit all you have to do is point her in the right direction and off she goes and Gabriel is a really quick learner even thought his is pretty shy."

"Really Gabriel's the reason we're so far out in the boonies. No offense meant of course," Clay said quickly, realizing what he had said. "I'm just more of a city guy myself. Anyway, there was this whole media incident that happened on the kid's first mission and well things got a bit messy… So basically that's the reason we're out here training instead of a city. Thought it would be better for both of them while their getting used to their new positions. Less... distraction out here if you like. And luckily the two, being 'unique,' have become pretty close and really do work good together."

"You said haunted house before," Martha pointed out as Clay paused.

"Uh yes… Care to explain Abe?"

"Sure," Abe said, though the IIcthyo sapien's eyes seemed rather say something more akin to 'thanks' in maybe just a bit of a sarcastic way. "As I said before there was this haunted house down the coast a bit that was having some minor… problems. The ghost we ended up exorcising wasn't... well… oh how do I say this?" Abe said to himself more then to anyone else leaning his head on his hands as he tried to figure out the best way to explain the situation. "He… he wasn't even really a poltergeist… didn't throw things or anything. Nothing really all that dangerous–"

"Speak for yourself," Kit said, suddenly appearing at the entryway to the kitchen again. "I am mentally scarred for life. Gabby's fine by the way," she added as she perched herself on the closest chair to the door which happened to be at the head of the table. "Should be out any minute."

"Scarred for life?" Clay raised an eyebrow to the girl, a chuckle in his voice. "Aren't we just a little drama queen?"

"Hey, you guys are guys," The cat girl said trying to be serious, but humor sparked within her eyes anyway. Really, the girls simple presence was enough to lift the mood. "I, on the other hand, am a delicate little girl. I shouldn't have been exposed to such crude behavior."

"Crude beha…?" William's brow furrowed a bit in confusion as he looked between Kit and Clay. "Okay, I'm lost. What –?"

Abe looked at the old medic, his eyes practically begging the man's understanding before he said: "The ghost turned out to be a flasher..."

TBC…

Hey people… I cannot apologies enough for taking so very, very long to write this new chapter. I feel especially bad for all my wonderful reviewers who had stuck with this story so long. I'm so sorry… I only hope the the next chapter will write out easier… I've just been having a bit of trouble between school and fanfics and, for some reason, even when I had time, couldn't get this fanfic to write out the way I wanted. It was quite aggravating. Truthfully I'm still having a bit of trouble... It's like I know what's going to happen next but somewhere between my brain and my 'pen' (so to speak) things are getting messed up. All I can say is sorry if this chapter seems a little forced and I really hope you enjoy it just a little. And please, please review.

A big THANK YOU going out to these dear reviewers SesshiraRayu, Iz the Shadow Pirate, PanLin Yee, Peya Luna, Sorrelshift, and Sparky28. Again I'm soooo very sorry this took so long and I pray you will still enjoy.

Hi Peya Luna. To answer your question from September (eek! I can't believe I'm only writing back to you in January!!!), I do have some ideas for expanding 'I'm No Angel' but their not quite 'solid' yet… Still working out a few kinks but with luck there should be something up there as a 'chapter 2' sooner or later…

Hello glorious sorrelshift, reviewer whom I adore… Your newest review/plea for me to continue BBE came just when my college finals ended. Meaning: I can coherently write again without going crazy! YAAAAAAAAAY!!! I must say I really missed writing BBE and hearing all your wonderful feedback. Sadly though I found (before) that with school and all something had to go or I would really go nuts… It was kinda between fanfic writing and grades and unfortunately the fanfics lost… sigh… But now I'm back (at least until the next semester starts giving me trouble… 19 credits… ugh)! But for now Wahahahah! Here you go. Sorry it took a bit to get this new chapter up… I had to go back and re-read my old ones to make sure I wouldn't mess anything up. And then I had some writing troubles. AND THEN my computer suddenly died on me for a while! THAT was scary, but it's better now… I hope… Anyway hope you like.

P.S. Chapter title: 'Story of a Girl" from the song "Absolutely" sung by Nine Days