There were drops of blood on the floor; a whole trail of them and Rusty felt his heart rate climbing as he followed them into the bathroom. The bathroom door was half-open and he pushed it and went into the room, fully aware that this could be a pretty stupid thing to do. Still, he thought it was a better option than letting someone bleed to death in the condo, especially if this someone happened to be Sharon. His eyes scanned the room quickly and noticed the bloodstained floor and a small puddle of bloody water next to the sink. Sharon was sitting on the edge of the bathtub and holding a blood soaked towel to her arm. Her hair was messy, both of her lips were split, her cheeks were covered with cuts and bruises and a bleeding fragmented cut ran diagonally from her left temple to the right side of her chin and looked deeper around the nose and left eyebrow. Her shirt was stained with blood around the neck and the sleeve of the bleeding arm. Rusty spotted some darker, dusty looking stains on it too. He also noticed her jeans was torn at the knee. The skin that peeked through the tear looked scraped.

"Sharon, what happened?" he asked, a horrified expression on his face.

"It's nothing, Rusty, don't worry," Sharon replied. Taking a seat next to her on the edge of the bathtub, he gently removed the towel from her arm and examined it. There was a long cut that ran from the inner side of her wrist to the inner side of her elbow and this was probably the source of most of the blood. He quickly took a look at Sharon's blood stained fingers and sighed.

"You're gonna need stitches," he said.

"I know," Sharon replied. "I was hoping to stop the bleeding so I can drive myself to the hospital," she added.

"Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen," Rusty said and carefully placed his thumb and index finger under her chin, turning her head towards him. Gently tilting it up and down, he inspected her wounds more closely.

Meow… he heard the faint sound coming from inside the bathtub and threw a startled glance into the tub. "Sharon, what's this?"

"It's a kitten," Sharon replied seriously.

"Yes, I can see that, but why is it in our bathtub and is it connected in any way to all of this?" he gestured towards her body. Sharon shrugged and tried to manage an apologetic expression that made her scrunch her nose in pain.

"I was sitting in the balcony and drinking tea, and I heard it mewling. It took me a moment to understand that it came from the roof. This kitten got stuck there and the mother was not in sight. It's possible that she deserted it or maybe even fell off the building and died." Sharon's voice was half a whine. "And it was stuck between two pipes. I had to crawl under them in order to pull it out, but the screws that held it in place were loose and the metal links were kinda jagged, so when I crawled out, I accidentally rubbed against a couple of them and injured myself," Sharon explained.

"Couldn't you call the fire department?" Rusty looked at her horrified. Did she really not realize how badly she was injured? Some of the cuts would definitely leave scars.

"I thought it would be easy to get it out, I didn't realize it will end up like this," Sharon's voice was just shy of a cry and Rusty knew she was in pain even if she tried to hide it.

"You really do have to save everyone, huh?" he tried to lighten the mood and noticed how Sharon's gaze dropped shamefully. "Okay, let me get the first aid kit and bandage you, then we're going to the hospital," he said and left the bathroom. When he came back, he grabbed a clean towel and dampened it under the tap. Gently, he patted her wounded temple to clean the blood, then moved to her nose, chin and finally, the split that went through her lips. He then used alcohol pads to disinfect each of her wounds. Sharon hissed in pain and instinctively sprung away from him. "Hold still, Sharon," he said softly, in a tone he heard her use with him countless times.

"It stings," she said and sounded a lot like a whiney child.

"I know, but we have to disinfect these cuts. You can deal with it, Scarface," his words made the ends of Sharon's swollen lips curl upwards and Rusty gave himself 10 points for managing to cheer her up. "Okay, I'm done with your face. Now's gonna be the really bad part." He removed the bloodstained towel from her arm again and put it aside. Blood was still oozing from the wound, but not as much as before. He hoped Sharon didn't lose too much blood from that cut. Gently, he wiped some of the blood from the wound with the wet towel and then grabbed a new alcohol pad and looked at Sharon. "Close your eyes, it will hurt less if you don't watch it." He wasn't sure this was actually true, but he wanted to give her something she could hold on to. Sharon gave him a quick nod and closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath and holding it inside her lungs. With shaking hands, Rusty brought the alcohol pad to Sharon's cut, gently patting around it and then moving it closer to the wound. Sharon hissed at first and then let out a miserable whimper that only became louder and louder as he kept disinfecting the cut. "I'm done, you can open your eyes now," he said when he finally put the alcohol pad aside. He bandaged the cut to the best of his ability and then looked at Sharon again.

"Thank you," she said and now the tears in her eyes were visible.

"It's not a big deal." She's done it for him in the past and in a way, he was a little glad he got to return the favor. "How are you feeling?"

"You don't wanna know," she replied and he offered her a comforting smile.

"Let's get you to the hospital."

Rusty unlocked the condo door and walked in, followed by half asleep and heavily bandaged Sharon. Like he thought, she had to get stitches. Forty five of them in total on both her face and her arm. The anesthetics she received at the hospital made her drowsy and she slept all the way home and walked like a zombie when he woke her up and manhandled her towards the elevator and then into the condo. He then led her to the bedroom where he took off her shoes and helped her into bed.

He watched her for a few moments before he left the room. Going back to the bathroom, he wiped the bloodstains and hand washed the towels. As he squeezed the water out of the towel, he suddenly remembered the kitten. He hoped that it was still where they left it in the bathtub, but when he put the towel down and threw a look into the tub, the kitten was gone.

"Oh, no…" he said and looked around the room. They left the bathroom door open when they went to the hospital which meant that the kitten probably left the room while they were gone.

He didn't have much experience with cat behavior but judging from cat posts he's seen on Tumblr, cats had the tendency to get in odd places, which meant that the cat could be anywhere in the house. With a sigh, he started checking the bathroom's hidden corners, behind the door, inside the laundry hamper, behind the toilet seat. When he couldn't find it in the bathroom, he left it and searched for the kitten in the kitchen, living room and the balcony. The kitten was nowhere to be found. He decided to check his room, despite the fact that the door was closed and as he expected, the kitten wasn't there either. Leaning against his bedroom doorframe, he bit his lip in confusion when he suddenly realized the only place he didn't check was Sharon's bedroom. Quietly walking into her bedroom, he threw a glance at her, immediately noticing the little gray furry creature that lay on her pillow, its body curled around Sharon's head. He let out a breath of relief and then smiled. Taking his iPhone out of his jeans pocket he snapped a few photos of them and then bent down and picked the kitten up from Sharon's pillow. Sharon stirred a little, but didn't wake. Quietly, Rusty left the room with the kitten and closed the door behind him.

Walking to the living room, he took a closer look at the kitten. It was dark grey and had green eyes which reminded him of Sharon's eyes. It was very small, probably not older than a month and Rusty caressed the fluffy fur with the tips of his fingers.

"Are you hungry?" he asked the kitten and the little fur ball responded with a loud yowl. "Let's go feed you, okay?" with the kitten in his arms, he walked to the kitchen where he poured some milk into a dish and served it to the hungry kitten. "You're very lucky, you know? Sharon will probably adopt you too, and she's a pretty awesome person, so you better appreciate her." When he realized that he was talking to a cat, he decided to shut up and just watched the kitten licking and devouring every drop of the milk. He refilled the dish and the kitten licked half of it and then laid down on the counter. Cradling it in his arms, Rusty smiled. He was not fond of cats, but this little kitten seemed harmless enough and its fur was very soft. He would give this one a chance.

Her head was throbbing when she opened her eyes and the details of what happened to her were a little difficult to piece together. It came to her in tiny fragments, and she brought her hand to her face, feeling the bandages that covered her stitches. With a sigh, she rose from the bed and walked, as fast as the fogginess of her vision allowed her, down the hall and towards the living room. As she reached the middle of the hall, she felt something soft rubbing against her bare foot. Bending down to pick up what must be a stray sock, she realized that this was actually a gray, fluffy, purring creature. Wrapping the fingers of her healthy hand around the small, fragile body, she picked it up and held it close to her heart.

"Hey, you're awake," Rusty said as he noticed her. He was sitting on the couch and reading one of Sharon's favorite books, realizing that it wasn't as boring as she made the book sound when she told him about it. "How are you feeling?"

"A little groggy," Sharon admitted.

"Yeah, the doctor said you might feel this way for a few hours," Rusty said.

"I can barely remember anything that happened after we drove off to the hospital," Sharon sighed and took a seat on the couch next to him.

"It's probably for the better. You look like Frankenstein's bride under the bandages," Rusty joked.

"Did he say if there's going to be any scarring?" Sharon wondered.

"He said the cut on your arm will definitely leave one, and you might have one on your lip and hopefully not one on your nose," Rusty informed her. "But I'm sure he was just telling the worse case scenario. I mean, you look great even with the bandages, really." Sharon snorted in response.

"So… I guess we have a cat now," she changed the subject.

"Yeah, it appears that we do."

"Are you gonna be okay if we keep it?" Sharon wondered. Rusty seemed to be scared of cats on his last encounters with them.

"I guess. I mean, she's pretty small," he replied and saw one of Sharon's eyebrows arching between the bandages.

"She?"

"Yeah, I checked. It's a female," Rusty said. Sharon brought the kitten to her face and looked into the small green eyes.

"She's not gonna stay this small, you know," she informed him and Rusty nodded in acknowledgement. "We should think of a name for her." The curious kitten threw her small paw in the air and it landed on one of Sharon's bandages.

"What's you middle name?" Rusty asked.

"Jillian with a J, why?"

"Because we should totally name her after you, but having a cat named Sharon would just be too weird," Rusty explained.

"Why after me?" Sharon wondered.

"Because you saved her, and she also kinda reminds me of you." He could see Sharon's eyebrow arching again. "Her eyes are the same color and shape as yours." Sharon couldn't hide her smirk.

"Okay, we can name her Jillian if you want to. Did you feed her?"

"I did. She was very hungry," he said. "Like me, when I first came here."

"You did eat everything I had in the fridge that evening. I thought you were trying to annoy me," Sharon smiled at the memory of Rusty's first night at her condo.

"I was, a little," Rusty admitted. "Speaking of food, are you hungry? I can make you that avocado and cheese sandwich you like." Sharon replied with a nod and Rusty got up and went to the kitchen. Sharon looked down at the kitten in her arms and then turned her body a little and watched Rusty working in the kitchen. He was such a lovely young man now, so beautiful, smart and caring and so very much hers. When she rescued Jillian earlier that day, she didn't plan on keeping her, knowing very well that Rusty was afraid of cats and dogs. Seeing him connecting with an animal seemed like a new and big achievement, one she was very proud of. She had a feeling he was doing it for her, but she hoped that the experience of being a pet owner will help him open his heart to animals and finally understand the unconditional love they offered; the unconditional love she felt for him.

Meow… she heard Jillian, who was not satisfied with the sudden lack of attention. Sharon picked her up gently and brought her close to her face.

"Welcome to the family, Jillian. I'm so glad you're here with us," she whispered into the kitten's ear. Jillian purred softly and Sharon closed her eyes and smiled to herself. Despite the cuts, bruises and possible future scars, she knew it was a good day. She had a kitten and a boy and that was all she needed in her life right now. These were the things that made a family.

THE END

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