i'm laughing my butt off at my original notes for this chapter. i was going to take that part out then i thought why not leave it in for hilarity's sake. also i'm not going to make this long and drawn out and overcomplicated by explaining every little detail of every single day. just take my word for it that some time has passed since the last chapter. the town is a buzz that their sweet little "rachel" has two potential suitors from the city thanks to nosey martha. and like early twilight mania there are two camps of thought as to which she which one she would be better off with. why not a local boy? even though they love her rachel is still a pregnant young unmarried girl and no respectable mother wants her son taking up with her. no offense intended at all to anyone. i just grew up in a rural mountain setting like the one in the story and i know how older mountain folks like that think and talk. also i don't intend to turn this into some twilight 'who should she choose parody either' and don't rightly know how i could cause i've never seen or read twilight just trailers and commercials and stuff on tv. no offense to anyone but if its not cartoons or anime or books written by edgar allen poe or stephen king or stephen hawking or carl sagan then i'm not much interested in it.


Raven's Nest-chapter 9

He had heard that word gets around fast in a small town but he never would have believed just how fast it could be until he had gotten back to town from helping Raven take her groceries to her apartment last week. By the way the town reacted an outsider would think the two of them were ready to tie the knot at any time. What's going to happen now he wonders that Martha the kindly but often misguided doctor's wife cajoled him into going up and giving the mean cat-that used to belong to the man who rented Raven's apartment before she moved in-a flea bath. He won't deny there is wisdom in that being done so Raven doesn't pick up some illness that gets translated to her babies-but just up and volunteering him to do it before even asking him about it before someone else could get the Kevin guy others seem to think she should be with is going a bit too far to him. He hasn't met this Kevin yet but if he is a nice guy and Raven likes him he certainly wouldn't stand in his way if that took Red X out of the equation. As he knocks on the door to Raven's apartment if nothing else he reasons it may give him a chance to finally come clean with Raven about who he is and why he is here. Without making a scene in some public place if she gets upset.

Raven groans as she gets up to open the door. All the talk around town about whether Kevin or Dick would be a better for her and the babies has really gotten on their nerves. She just wants to be left alone and the last person she wants to see right now is the cocky Dick that Martha sent up here.

"I'm just here to help out with the cat."

"Are you sure about this?"

"People around town say he was mostly an Indoor cat in winter and that comes early and leaves late here. Given your condition if you intend to keep him a flea bath would be a good idea."

"I'm not so sure Otis would agree to that. If you intend to do it you should explain that to him and ask his permission or your apt to end your evening getting stitched up over at the Docs."

"Ask his permission?"

She leads him out onto the deck. "He knows what you're saying. Anyone capable of reading between the meows can have conversation with him."

Robin realizes that now isn't a good time to reveal anything to Raven given her mood. He finds the cat sitting on the deck rail.

"Meow." Short and curt its Raven he's looking at.

"Yes I'm having another mood swing." She promptly turns around and goes back inside.

Robin could swear the look that the cat gives him is trying to convey not to take offense at Raven's behavior she's like this often. "Right. So umm...I'm here on behalf of the people of the town that are concerned about Rave-Rachel and would like you to have a flea bath so she doesn't pick up an illness that makes her and the babies sick." He could swear its the slip with Raven's name that makes the cat give him a funny look rather than anything else he said.

Raven comes back outside with the flea bath, an old towel, and a plastic tub with some water. "You going to let him do this?"

"Meowww." Otis jumps down off the deck rail and goes off into the trees.

Raven turns to Robin. "He says to wait. He will be back in five minutes."

After a week X has come to realize by talking to Rachel whenever they chanced to meet that he is competing with himself or rather the mysterious thief she doesn't yet know he is. That makes waiting to tell her who he is all the more difficult. All he knows about why she left was the letter she left in her room at the tower.

"Why don't you just tell her already?"

X looks up at Pete as he steps out of the kitchen and brings him coffee. "Tell who what?"

"Harry is my brother I had him over to watch the game the other night and he talks a little freer than normal when he's had a few beers. Doris made me promise to have a talk with you." Pete lowers his voice so no one overhears. "You're the father. Harry is your boss and he knows you still got it bad for Rachel. Harry is also good friends with Seth who is Rachel's boss who knows she still has it bad for you. I don't why you two split up or why she's got no clue who you are but I do know that if you don't do something Martha is gonna see Rachel hitched to that cocky one before he skips town at the end of summer-which is going to be soon around these parts."

"I know Rachel she wouldn't go for his type...but..."

"...but what?"

"What if she doesn't want me back?"

"Did she say you were the reason she left?"

"No...she didn't exactly say why...just left a vague impression behind."

"It was all fun and game and kids weren't in the plans. And when she found out she was expecting she didn't want to burden you with them. Just left a note and hopped on a bus out of the city."

"Something like that."

Pete pulls out a picture from his wallet. "That's my Cindy when she was 5. She is 30 with a 5 year old of her own now. I met Doris in college-she got a full scholarship to the city community college and we ended up with an apartment together soon after we met in one of our classes. That reminds me our anniversary is coming up soon. "Gonna be mine and Doris' silver this year. So you might say I know a thing or two about what you're going through. My advice is don't wait as long as I did."

Promptly five minutes later Otis comes back and following him is an almost exact copy of him in miniature except for the darker more orange colored fur.

Raven looks down at the new arrival. "Trouble with the missis or do you have joint custody?"

The old curmudgeon isn't amused by her remark. He mews sternly at the kitten before picking it up by the scruff of the neck and sitting it down in the tub of water and holding it there.

As soon as the kittens squalling conniption fit starts Helen rushes out of her apartment and into Raven's to make sure she is okay and Harley comes running around the side of the apartments with Trey barking at his heels. For a moment they all stand there dumbfounded watching the cats.

Soon Helen scoops the Kitten up in the towel. "Stop it before you drown that precious little thing!"

Otis pays her no mind as she dries off the kitten and hops into the bath himself. He looks up Robin as if to tell him to hurry up and get it over with.

Harley stands there scratching his head as Otis willingly hops into the bath. "If I didn't see it with my own eyes I never would have believed a cat would just jump into a tub of water like that."

After the eventful evening Robin finally heads back the boarding house. He stops doing a double take at the for sale sign on the fancy car. He finds himself wondering again as he stares at if Red X is here in town.

"You interested or just think the owner lost his marbles?"

"I never would have said that last part out loud-but now that you mention it. What would make a man give up something like that?"

"Maybe material things aren't as important to him as they used to be."

Robin looks up at guy sitting on the front porch. "The names Dick, I don't think we've met."

"So you're the infamous Dick huh?"

"I didn't know I had a title."

"Depends on who you talk to around here. I haven't met you until just now and there there are twenty guys that would swear they've seen us come to blows over Rachel."

"So you're Kevin."

"Guilty."

"What no one around here seems to listen to is that I have no romantic interest in the girl."

"I grew up in a small town like this. If there isn't something for them to gossip about they will create it."

"I can see that."

"The other thing about small towns is how incredibly hard it is to have a secret."

"You have one of those?"

"Maybe not for much longer. What brings you out this way other than hiking the backwoods?"

"I've been looking for someone-found her actually."

"Sounds like why I came. I wasn't sure why she left at first-I thought it may have been because of my past and that she didn't want me to be a father."

Robin stops taking in what was just said and mulls that over in his mind. Several scenarios play out in his head and few of them end well but instead of acting on any of them he restrains himself and decides to listen to more. "What did you decide to do?"

"Change. Gave up my old job. Sold off all the high priced things I had and gave the money to charity. Found a new job here to prove myself only to find out she was still hung up on my old self. I figured the best option was maybe wait and she would eventually come around to the new me. I didn't know what to do until I had a talk with Pete down at the diner earlier."

"And what did he have to say?"

"Told me about his daughter how she was 30 but he's only been married to her mother for 25 years. I don't want that to happen to me. Now its just a matter of working up the nerve to go see her."

"Sounds like you have it all figured out then."

"Hopefully."

"Do you love her?"

"At first it was just wild nights of kinky passionate sex. Somewhere along the way things started to change...maybe if I had told her that then we wouldn't be here now."

"Why didn't you tell her?"

"Ever try to tell her she was beautiful and not just on the inside?"

"I can imagine her response."

"No matter what I said -I could never convince her of that. To me she is the most beautiful girl in the world. If I can't convince her of that how could I ever convince her that I love her?"

Robin is faced with a problem now. Try to apprehend Red X and turn him in for his crimes or let him go. If he does turn him in how would Raven react? Stay here alone and try to make a living with her twins? She would have nothing to do with him and by default the other titans most likely. "You came all this way and gave up everything you had for her. I think that's a start." He continues inside the boarding house.


my original intention was to have red x and robin come to blows over raven but the closer i got to this scene the more i hated that idea. once i started writing this is how it came out and i love the change. its just another reason why i'm glad it ended up on hold for so long-its better now than it ever would have been if continued when it was started. its different and unexpected yet still nets the same outcome minus the trip to the doc to get patched up afterward and that i can live without. there is just something about the dialogue after they realize who each other are that i love.

the real Otis did have a son that i'm sorry to say didn't survive. he took sick very suddenly and died b4 we could get him to the vet. he suffered a serious respiratory aliment possibly a cat version of asthma or allergic reaction. the whole sequence is dumb as all heck but it was so funny i couldn't resist leaving it-a pregnant half demon having mood swings and a cat getting a flea bath. i left it to work in the kitten which plays a roll in the ending that i wanted to keep. papa kitty makes the baby take the bath first-that was just to hilariously cute very late at night when it was written. what i did cut out was a nighttime scene where Raven wakes up to the toilet repeatedly flushing and when she goes to look it turns out to be the daddy cat potty training the kitten to do its bizzo in the toilet. actually i don't think the real Otis had a problem with baths unless he was in one of his curmudgeon moods. and i have a cat now that likes to dunk things in dish water-which is how that odd scene was born-good thing there are no baby kittens around the house. the real life mini-mes name was oh so originally Otis Jr. so unless its for some reason too adorable or perfect not to use here review me a suggestion for the kitten name in the story.

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