A/N: Here kitty, kitty, kitty =) Extra long drabble!
Characters: Rick, Renae (OC), Genna (OC), with cameos from Eric and Natalia
Genre: General
94. Soft
It was eleven pm, and Renae had been in bed for maybe fifteen minutes, when the phone rang. Confused, as well as half asleep, she picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
"Oh my god, thank God you're awake!" Sergeant Rick Stetler's voice bellowed from the phone.
Renae groaned. "Rick, it's eleven. I'm trying to sleep!"
"I need your help, Renae! And I need it now!" He sounded urgent.
"Look, Ricky Boy, I am not coming over at eleven at night to show you how to work the blender again! Nor am I giving you advice on how to get a date, nor am I going to take you step-by-step in learning how to determine how much fabric softener to use, how to dump it in, and how to turn the washer on! I am not your mother!"
Silence came from the other end.
"Rick?"
"Renae, just get over here as fast as you can! It's an emergency!"
She rolled her eyes. "Rick! What the hell is so urgent at eleven pm?"
"Well, you see, there's this cat, named Twiggy, and her owners forgot her when they moved last month. They just left her here!" Rick began to explain.
"So? Feed the damn thing. Good night..."
"I'm not done!" he yelled. "You see, she had kittens six weeks ago. But I was coming home tonight, and I saw something on the side of the road, by my house. So I stepped out of my car and went to see what it was, and it was Twiggy! She had been hit by a car! And she was dead!"
"You really need to go down to the morgue more often."
"Renae! The kittens, they're still out there! All alone, in the cold! You have to come over and help me find them! Or else they'll starve to death!"
Renae sighed. "I'll be right over. But I'm going to call Genna first, okay?"
"Why?"
"She's a cat freak."
"Just hurry, okay!"
"This is ridiculous; being called out at eleven at night to rescue cats!" Renae grumbled as she exited her SUV.
Genna stepped out of her small, red sports car. "Quit your bitching! Besides, they're kittens, not cats!"
"They're the same damn animal! You see, 'babies' refers to all young animals! You don't see us calling our kids a whole 'nother name!"
"We call them kids, or children."
"Children of cats; can't we just say that?"
"You're rhyming again,"
"Ladies!"
The two women turned to see Rick quickly walking down his driveway towards them.
"Stop your bickering! We have kittens to save!"
Genna smirked and raised a brow at Renae. "I win."
"Whatever," Renae rolled her eyes. "Now, Ricky Boy, where do these kittens live?"
The man paused, and scratched the back of his head. "Somewhere by the little marsh behind my house."
"Great. We don't even have an exact location." the redheaded woman sighed.
"Hey, if I had known where they were, I wouldn't have called you!"
"Sure you would have,"
"Guys!" Genna exclaimed. "Seriously! Let's go get these kittens, so I can go back to sleeping!"
Determined, Rick quickly pointed in the direction of the marsh, and led Genna towards it. Renae let out an exasperated sigh, and followed.
In between each house on Rick's road, was a ten foot trail that led up over a muddy wall, and down into a forest. The forest was composed of Bald-cypresses, Slash pines, Australian pines, and a handful of palms. The greatest discovery was when Renae spotted a cactus, until Rick informed her that it was illegal to dig them up.
After about three minutes of wading through scratchy bushes and trees, they came up to a twelve foot chain link fence. At the bottom, was a hole big enough for a cat to fit through. They could hear mewing from bushes on the other side.
"See! This is why I called you! I knew there'd be some small thing that I can't get through!" Rick exclaimed. "Now, which one of you is going to crawl through there? Renae?"
Renae snorted. "Genna's skinnier."
"Okay, then Genna can crawl through the hole!"
"No! No way!" the petite blonde turned to Rick and shoved a finger at his chest. "I hardly know you, and you're already telling me to crawl through a hole for you? No, sir-ee, I think not!"
"Oh, come on! For the sake of the kittens!" Rick pleaded.
"No! I am not crawling through a hole!"
Renae rolled her eyes, and then sized up the fence. As the two continued bickering, she began to climb. She reached the top, and made the mistake of looking down. Taking a deep breath, she hoisted herself over to the other side, and slowly made the descent.
"Guys," Renae said, after her feet hit the ground. "Guys!"
The two turned to their left, where she had been standing. Confused, they looked across the fence. Renae waved at them.
"How the hell'd you get across?" Rick asked, with a slight, and almost unnoticeable, hint of worry.
"I had a ten foot steel fence in Vegas with two snapping Dobermans on the inside. I think I can climb a chain link fence."
Genna rolled her eyes. "Okay, okay, stop gloating and find those kittens! I'll go back and grab the cat carrier I brought."
Renae made a face the second Genna turned her back.
"Stop mocking and find them!" Rick urged.
Sighing, Renae made her way over to a tree, where the mewing was coming from. To the left of the tree, shielded under a big root, were five small kittens. Renae pulled on a pair of latex gloves, and slowly reached in to grab one of the kittens.
"What are the gloves for?" Rick's voice broke the silence, and startled Renae.
She scowled. "I'm highly allergic, Rick. You're supposed to know these things!"
"I got it!"
They looked to Genna, who ran up beside Rick.
"Now, I'm going to pass it to you through the hole in the fence here, and you can take it over to the kittens and put them in it, and then pass it back through the fence!" she explained, and carefully put the carrier through the hole.
Renae walked over and grabbed it, and then trudged back to the kittens.
"If they scratch me, I'm dead."
"No, only if their fur or tongues touch you, you're dead." Genna corrected.
Renae ignored her, and carefully picked up a white kitten...which was more of a brown colour due to the mud they were laying in. Next, she moved two calico ones into the carrier, then a grey tabby one, and last, an orange one.
"I got them all!" she called out, and then headed over to the fence. Carefully, she passed the container through the hole, where Genna then grabbed it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Are they okay?" Rick's brow was furrowed with worry as Genna examined the kittens on his kitchen table.
"Yeah, they'll be fine. They're just a little dirty, and maybe a tad hungry." she said, and then pulled out a few bottles of formula from her bag. "Here," Genna handed him a bottle. "Help feed."
Renae groaned. "Can I go home yet? I'm tired."
"No!" both cat handlers yelled back at her.
The kittens mewed louder. Sighing, Renae pulled on another pair of gloves, picked up a bottle, and began to feed the orange one.
"So, Stetler, do you want me to take these guys home with me? I already have three cats, and I've had experience with kittens." Genna asked after they had finished feeding the kittens.
Rick still held the small white one in his arms. "Uh, no, no. That's fine. I can take care of them."
Renae looked to Genna and raised a brow.
The two said their goodbyes, and headed outside towards their vehicles.
"Wow," Genna said as she opened her car door. "I didn't realize that the man had a heart."
Renae snorted. "See what I've been trying to tell you guys all along?"
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A week later, at the end of the dayshift, Rick walked into the lab carrying a cat carrier with the kittens inside. They needed homes, and he didn't want to just drop them off at the SPCA. So, he figured he'd bring them to the lab.
Renae glanced up from the report she was writing as Rick stepped into the break room. "Rick, I'm pretty sure there's a policy saying that animals are only allowed on the premises if they are service dogs or evidence."
"They are evidence, Renae!" Rick retorted. "Evidence of what happens when people move and leave their cat behind!"
Renae rolled her eyes.
Slowly, following the sound of mewing, people floated into the break room.
"Shotty the two calicos!" Genna shouted as she barged into the room, and through the small crowd of people. "I saw them first!"
She knelt down beside the carrier, and pulled her two chosen ones out. "Hi boys! How've you been? Yeah, you're coming home with me! Lupus, Pneumonia and Acidosis! My little Botulism and Colic!"
Everyone in the room stared at her.
"What? I used to be a nursing student, and got creative!"
They shook their heads as she exited the room.
Natalia bent down next to the carrier, and Rick handed her the grey tabby. She smiled. "I'll take this guy!"
"Oh, wait, don't tell me," Renae started. "You're naming him Pulmonary Embolism?"
Natalia rolled her eyes. "No! His name is Max!"
Renae scowled. "Oh come on! You could've at least have given him a non-generic name!"
The room cleared out, and all that was left was the orange tabby, and the pure white one. Rick picked up the white one. "Well, I'm sure you'll find orangey a home."
Renae looked up at him. "Excuse me?"
"Oh, I'm taking Blizzard here home with me." he smiled at his new found friend.
"So, I'm supposed to find the last fuzz ball a home?"
"Yeah," he nodded. "See ya, Renae!"
She watched, in disbelief, as the IAB Sergeant walked off proudly, ball of soft, white fluff in hand.
Eric entered the room, and made a face. "Was he just..."
"Carrying a cat?"
"Smiling?"
Renae pursed her lips. "Yes, he was smiling."
"Wow." Eric sat down beside her on the couch. "Never knew the guy liked cats. Should he be allowed to even have a cat?"
The woman sighed. "Eric, you know as well as I do that every 'bad guy' needs a cat! Just think about it! The bad guy in James Bond had a cat, Doctor Claw from Inspector Gadget had a cat, Dr. Evil had a cat, and even Cinderella's evil step-mother had a cat!"
Eric stared at her. "You watch too many movies."
The orange tabby meowed, and they looked down at it. Renae sighed, put on a pair of gloves, and picked up the cat. "Jamie and Lara are looking for a cat."
Eric nodded. "Yeah, they mentioned that their visit to the SPCA had to be postponed."
Renae looked at the orange mass in her hand that stared at her with big, yellow-green eyes. "I know exactly what Jamie's going to name you."
And so he became to be known, as Horatio the cat.