Title: Calvin
Genre: Gen
Rating: PG
Characters: Alan
Spoilers: General for season 1
Prompt: lj comm numb3rs100 40 Loss
Word count: 300
Disclaimer: Own nothing, not being paid.
A/N: Dedicated to CJ the budgie who had to leave us yesterday after 6 years of joy. You'll be missed, CJ.
Summary: Alan loses a feathered friend.
Alan whistled as he came down the stairs. There was no reply, but sometimes Calvin disdained doing so and turned his back on Alan when Alan came near the cage. Other times his head was too buried in his feed to care that Alan was calling to him.
There was no sign of the cockatoo as Alan approached.
"You on the floor again?" Alan asked, expecting at any minute to see Calvin's head pop up into view. But it didn't and he couldn't hear any skittering of claws on the bottom of the cage.
The reason why became apparent when Alan stopped beside the cage.
"Oh, Calvin."
The bird was lying on his side on the bottom of the cage, claws curled up and clearly dead. It was a shock—they'd had Calvin so long, he hadn't appeared to be ill and cockatoos lived a long time. Without quite realising how, Alan ended up sitting in a chair.
Calvin had been a gift from Margaret, a gift that Alan was sure she'd eventually somewhat regretted giving him. Calvin was a...had been a one man bird. He'd liked Alan and hated Margaret. Don had liked him initially, until Calvin had decided to bite the small fingers that had been poked through the side of the cage. After that they'd had a hate-hate relationship and Don had passed his fear of the bird onto Charlie. On the plus side, at least it meant that Charlie hadn't been bitten.
He'd been a beautiful bird and a great companion for Alan. The months after Margaret's death had been made a little easier by Calvin. He was a humorous reminder of Margaret and there were so many good memories that surrounded him. And now, only a year after her death, Calvin was gone.
-FIN-