Demon
Dr. Alice Harvey was hard at work in the morgue. That was where she liked being best; it was the work she enjoyed doing, and it was the one thing she could do without anyone else interfering or getting on her nerves or making her feel out of place. Here in the morgue, uncovering the secrets of the bodies she was charged to examine, Alice was in her element. After all, the dead couldn't give her strange looks when she said or did something that put people off. And her colleagues could mock her behind her back all they wanted, for her work was exemplary and she was the best pathologist in the city and everyone knew it.
Not to say that she did not have friends. She did. Alice had gotten to know a few of the other doctors. Dr. Lafferty had been still been a staff pathologist when Alice moved to Melbourne. Dr. Blake had joined up much later, and he and Alice worked very closely together, particularly now that Dr. Lafferty had been promoted to Chief Medical Examiner of their office. But all three of them worked well together. And Alice had something of a little family now. Something she'd never really had before. Something she never thought she'd ever have.
"What are you doing?"
Alice turned to see her boss come into the room with a frown on her face. Alice explained, "I'm doing an autopsy. What does it look like I'm doing?"
"Put down the scalpel for a moment."
She did as she was told but eyed Dr. Lafferty suspiciously. "Why?"
Ronnie couldn't hide her smile as she walked over to Alice and pulled her into her arms. "Because I can't do this when there's the risk of being stabbed," she teased.
Alice didn't much go for unexpected shows of affection, but she was getting much better about it. After a moment of stiffening from surprise, she relaxed into the embrace, though keeping her hands away from Ronnie—her gloves were covered in blood after all. "I thought we agreed not to do things like this at work?" Alice reminded her.
But Ronnie just turned her head and gave Alice a small kiss. "I'm the boss, and that means I can bend the rules sometimes. Particularly when it comes to my wife."
Her wife. Alice beamed. She'd never thought that would happen to her either. But she and Ronnie had found their way together, taken a vacation to New Zealand, and returned home with a marriage certificate. "Happy anniversary, by the way. I had to leave early and I didn't want to wake you," Alice said, kissing Ronnie softly again.
Ronnie grinned and backed up to lean against the counter, avoiding Alice's messy hands. "Yeah, thanks, that late shift last night left me absolutely knackered. But I did miss waking up to you."
Alice went back to her work and smiled softly to herself. "Well, you wake up to me every day, and that's really the whole point, isn't it?"
"It certainly is. I've got you to share my life, Alice, and that's all I want."
"Which is why I agreed to go to Christchurch with you exactly three years ago," Alice replied. And that was precisely what happened. She had been full of far too many anxieties when it came to Ronnie. So unsure of herself and her lover and what the future might hold. Ronnie had rather impulsively said they should just go get married and the commitment would solve their problems. Alice realized she was right, and they'd flown out the following day and got married two days after that. Quite a perk of dating your boss; the time off for vacation is rather easy to secure.
Ronnie continued, "I wanted to get you something for our anniversary."
"No, we were going to celebrate just our wedding anniversary on Saturday. We can just have a quiet night in to celebrate tonight, can't we?" Alice lamented.
"And we will," Ronnie assured her. "But I may have done something a bit impulsive."
Alice did not like hearing Ronnie say things like that. Ronnie was a very impulsive person, a trait Alice did not share in the least. But Alice helped keep Ronnie in line and Ronnie helped push Alice out of her comfort zone; they balanced each other nicely. Alice realized that the odds of her getting any more work done today were slim. She finished the examination she was doing and stripped off her gloves. The autopsy would have to wait. "What did you do?" she asked accusingly.
"Come home and see," Ronnie replied cryptically.
They returned to their little house across town together; Alice liked taking the bus to work on occasion, and Ronnie had taken the car to see her, so Ronnie drove them both back home. The entire car ride was filled with Alice interrogating Ronnie about what this suspicious surprise might be and Ronnie just laughing and delighting in torturing her wife by refusing to divulge any details.
When they arrived home, Ronnie paused by the front door. "Alright so I know this might be a bit of an adjustment, but you're going to love him, I promise."
"Him?" Alice asked in panic.
Ronnie let them both into the house with a smile which immediately fell from her face. "Oh Christ," she whispered.
Alice immediately saw the cause for such a reaction. Their whole house seemed to be in chaos. The walls were scratched. The floor was strewn with feathers and fluff and torn paper. "Ronnie, what the hell is going on?!" Before Ronnie could answer, a small black shape zoomed into view and quickly went around the corner. "What was that!?" Alice shrieked.
Ronnie just sighed. "That would be the surprise. His name is Sebastian."
"What is he?" Alice asked her gravely.
"He's a very sweet kitty," Ronnie defended.
"A demon kitty," Alice corrected, gesturing to the havoc the cat had wreaked in their home.
"Why don't you just have a seat on the sofa and see if he'll come to meet you, and I'll do the cleaning. Since leaving him on his own here was my stupid idea," Ronnie offered.
Alice delicately made her way to the living room and sat down amidst two shredded pillows. The source of the fluff and feathers that had found their way all over all the floors.
Before she could even get herself too settled, the demon kitty himself leapt up onto Alice's lap and stretched himself out, meowing loudly.
"Oh…good lord," Alice murmured helplessly. Somewhat nervously, she lifted her hand to pet the cat. Sebastian immediately began purring like a motorboat.
Ronnie stood in the doorway and watched her wife chuckle merrily and continue to pet Sebastian, who started snuggling closer on Alice's chest. And even though there was a mess and Sebastian might well be a demon kitty, the decision to bring him home was clearly a very good one.