Maddie lay in his bed, eyes closed, breath shallow. Vlad reached out, gently running his fingers through her short, silky hair. It was killing him inside, this waiting. He'd given her the medicine and now all he could do was hope it worked.

Wait to see if she lived.

For so long, if he'd wanted anything, all he'd ever needed to do was take it. A single word could fall from his lips and people would fall over themselves to make it so.

So when he'd found her that morning, collapsed under the strain of simply existing, he'd had no idea what to do.

"Stress," the doctor had told him. "It happens, sometimes. Have you been gone for a while?"

He'd been in Amity Park only for a few days, terrorizing Daniel and his little friends.

"It might be pancreatitis. If so, she'll need monthly dialysis, daily antibiotics. Almost round the clock care."

He looked at the spot on her arm where they'd placed the IV. She'd needed liquids and couldn't even bring herself to drink. He gently caressed her, breath hitching when she opened one eye to look at him. The moonlight caught her pupil, making it flash.

"Maddie, my dear," he whispered, trying to smile. She liked it when he smiled at her. "Rest. I'll be right here."

The small white cat, so frail and thin now, reached out with one paw, flexing her claws to gently wrap around his thumb with a thunderous purr.

He hoped she would live through the night.

A/N: High-strung cats are the worst, you guys. This little drabble was based on my cat who, after I left for the weekend decided to stress herself almost to death because she thought I was never coming back. You had plenty of food and water and your cat-siblings, what more did you want?! I was gone for less than 48 hours ;-; (She's fine now, some fluids and medication and she's healthy as ever with no need for expensive dialysis~)

Beyond that, I'm happy to participate in my first DannyMay~ And for this, I'm going to focus on the most underrated character – Maddie the cat. I hope you enjoy all the kitty tales~

(Also, if any of you dear readers wandered in from my Digimon headcannon/Digimon V fics, I swear I'm still going to work on those ;-; It was just a major hassle with moving, and then every computer we had crashed and I lost everything I'd been working on and I only just got enough motivation to start writing, like, a month ago. But I promise, no Child shall be left unangsted!)