Chapter 4

When morning came, it found Nepeta wrapped safely in Damien's arms as Jacklyn walked out of her room. She did a double take as she saw the two of them, then grinned a little mischievously. She quietly took a quick shower and sneaked back into the living room where she turned on the TV and fired up Guitar Hero in free play mode. She stood there for a moment, looking at the sleeping figures, almost as though she was considering not going through with her plan before her grin returned wider than before. She pressed a couple of keys, turned the volume up as loud as she knew the speakers would take it, and hit the strum bar, creating a loud wail from the speakers that woke Damien with a jolt.

"Who dumped the cat in the bucket!" he yelled as he looked around wildly. When he saw Jacklyn standing there with a triumphant smirk, he shook his head. "I should've known."

"Yeah, you should have. Did you enjoy your night?"

"Get your mind out of the gutter, sis. Nepeta was having a nightmare in the middle of the night. I came out here to help her calm down and ended up staying. It was a good sleep until you decided to try and play again. You know I'm better."

"Is that a challenge I hear?"

"Well, it is the weekend. What better way to start it off than by kicking your butt at this?"

"Wha's going on?" Nepeta asked sleepily as she sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"Just getting ready to enjoy the weekend," Damien replied with a grin as he got up and grabbed a game guitar.

Later that day, they were all walking to the café. "I still don't understand why you think we need to go on the one day off we have together, Damien," Jacklyn complained.

"Well, I was in a bit of a mood when I left yesterday, so I figured I would make it up to Jamie by taking his shift this afternoon."

"And you weren't going to tell us?" Jacklyn asked.

"I never said you had to come," Damien pointed out.

"Yeah, well if you were going, that meant Nepeta was going to go and I didn't feel like hanging around the apartment on my own today, all right?"

"Eh, you're just upset because I beat you again."

"It's not my fault you know more of the songs than I do. If I played half as much as you do, I'd be that good, too." Nepeta listened to all this, giggling all the while. She still walked close to Damien, but it didn't look like he minded.

"Keep dreaming, sis," Damien said as he opened the door and held it for them.

"Damien, you're here," Monroe said. "Good. I've got something I need to talk to you about."

"Hey, bro! Hey, Jackie! Hey, grey girl!" Nick called from the stool he was sitting on. "Mr. Monroe's gonna give me a job!"

"I said maybe, Nicholas."

"Nick, what happened to your last job? With the retirement community?"

"They said I was too energetic for the stuff going on there. Would you believe it?"

"To be honest, Nick, yeah, I believe it."

"Nicholas said that you two would act as his references," Monroe said, fixing Nick with a steely gaze. "He's aiming for a chef's position, so I've got two questions to ask. One, can this scrawny kid cook?"

Nick broke out in his signature smile. "Mr. Monroe, you bet I can-"

"I wasn't asking you, Nicholas. Damien?"

Damien chuckled. "That's just the way Monroe works, Nick. Yeah, boss, he can cook."

"All right, are you willing to spend time training him with your style?"

"I can think of few people I'd be more willing to train, boss."

Monroe kept his gaze on Nick before grinning. "Well then, welcome aboard, Nicholas. I'll mark down your time in and Damien can start your training."

"Awesome!" Nick crowed. Damien led him to the back room to show him where all the supplies were. "Dude, what'd I do this time?"

"What do you mean, Nick?"

"I mean, your sister's giving me her icy glare. I haven't gotten that in months, bro!"

Damien laughed. "Nepeta used your nickname for Amy when asking who Jacklyn was. As you can tell, Jacklyn blames you."

"Aw man, that's my bad, Jackie!" Nick called only to dodge as a pan flew through the open door.

"I'll thank you not to throw the pots and pans, Jacklyn," Damien called without turning around.

"Well, tell him to get his butt out here and I'll leave them alone!" she yelled back.

"Dude, how do you guys stay in business like this?"

"The customers seem to have gotten used to this sort of thing. Stay here and I'll go handle this," Damien said with a sigh before going into the eating area.

"What, is he too chicken to come out here himself?" Jacklyn asked.

"I doubt it, but it's not really his fault for the confusion on the nickname. To be honest, it's kind of stupid that you're getting upset about it like this."

"Really. You're really going to turn this on me?"

Nepeta had taken all of this in and took this opportunity to step between them. "Jacklyn if you're really this upset about it, I'm pawfully sorry about saying it." Jacklyn looked down at Nepeta with surprise while Damien smiled with a chuckle.

"Hey, did she just talk, bro?" Nick asked as he poked his head from the backroom.

"Made a cat pun, too," Damien said.

Jacklyn finally sighed. "Fine, I'll let it go." Nepeta smiled and hopped on a stool.

"Well, now that that's taken care of-" Damien started.

"Damien," Monroe called out from the back. "I've got a truck here all ready to be unloaded."

Damien sighed. "Be right there!" He turned to Nepeta. "I'll be back as soon as I'm done with this. You gonna be fine here?"

"Yeah, bro," Nick said with a smile. "She'll be great with Jackie and me here. You go do what you've gotta do." With that, he turned to Nepeta. "So you do cat puns?"

"What can I say? I love cats," Nepeta said with a shrug. "They're pawsitively purrfect!"

"I swear, that's the most adorable thing I've ever heard," Nick laughed as he pulled some bread dough out to cook. "So where are you from?"

"Alternia."

Nick looked at Jacklyn with confusion. "Some third world country?" Jacklyn gestured him closer before whispering Nepeta's origins in his ear. Nepeta watched as his eyes went wide, waiting for some kind of negative reaction. However, all Nick said was, "Well, that explains a lot." That's when the bell above the door rang as someone walked in. Nick looked at who it was and all sense of joking left his face. "Great, it's her."

Nepeta and Jacklyn turned around and Jacklyn let out a hiss of breath. There stood a skinny blonde girl with her long hair back in a ponytail. She carried herself with an air of arrogance that was echoed by the way she wore her designer clothes. She looked around the café a bit, then spied the trio at the counter.

"So, I take it this is the chick I've got to get Damien to forget about?" she asked, looking at Nepeta. "She doesn't look like much to me. Just a little kitty cat who needs to go back to where she belongs." Nepeta started growling, her hands clenched into fists.

"Listen, Amy," Jacklyn said. "The only reason I don't shove you back out that door is because this is public property. Don't give me an excuse to do it anyway."

"What, I can't be here to say how sorry I am to the man I love?" Amy said putting on an innocent face.

"Ahem, bullshit," Nick coughed.

"What, you have something to say, Nick?" Amy asked.

"Oh, don't mind me, I've already gotten one icy glare today, Great Bitch," Nick said before covering his mouth with an amused expression. "Oops."

"What did you just call me?" Amy yelled.

"Oh come on, it's not like you haven't heard it already. I mean, I'm pretty sure half the neighborhood has been calling you that for the past couple of days."

"What's going on in-" Damien fell silent as he saw the situation. "Amy."

"Oh, hi, Damien," Amy said, innocent face back on as she hurried over to stand in front of him. Nepeta turned around, looking like she was about to pounce on her. "Listen, can we talk someplace a little more, I don't know, private?"

"I think we've said all that needs to be said, Amy," Damien said. "If you have anything you want to add to it, you can say it here in front of everyone else."

"All right," Amy said with a slight pout. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for the way I treated you. It was wrong. I'm lonely now and I want to be with you."

Behind her, Nick and Jacklyn were making their opinions of the situation visibly known while Nepeta was starting to get up, a glint of metal coming from her gloves. "Guys, cut it out," Damien said. Nick and Jacklyn went still and Nepeta hesitated. Amy turned to give them a look of triumph before Damien started to talk again. "I don't know what you were expecting, Amy, but for you to come in here jealous just because of a rumor that I've moved on, which may or may not be true, isn't going to wrap me around your finger again. I told you when I found out that I was willing to forgive you, but you snubbed me. That door's closed." Throughout Damien's speech, Nepeta started to relax more and more until she was leaning on the counter.

Monroe stepped out from the back. "Amy, if you're not here to buy something, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Amy looked around, surprised at the turn of events, then stormed out of the café.

"Uh, I have a question," Nepeta said. "What rumor were you talking about?"

"Ah," Nick stammered, rubbing the back of his neck, "I may have said something to Ms. Robinson down the street. And she knows Mrs. Johnson and between the two of them, it probably wasn't long before everyone else knew."

Damien sighed and Nepeta hopped over to him and took his hand in hers. "Are you going to be okay?" she asked, oblivious of the grins from the other three.

"Yeah," Damien said, cracking a grin of his own. "I just needed a little closure."

Well, I have to say I'm proud of myself. Three chapters in three days! Whoo hoo! I dunno, I'm sitting here trying to see if I could have done a better job with that confrontation. Can you guys see anything? You're the readers here, so you'd have the better perspective. Anyway, it might be a while until the next update what with another night of work tomorrow. See you at the next update!