All Saints Day

"Ed, that's your phone," Jamie Reagan called to his wife. She was still curled up under the covers on their bed, enjoying sleeping in a little this morning, one of the few they were both off work.

"Workin' on it!" Eddie called sleepily. "H'llo, Rach."

Jamie went back to gathering the ingredients for his breakfast protein smoothie as he kept one ear on the conversation Eddie was having with, he assumed, her partner Rachel Witten.

"No! Is he okay?... Of course you have to. …. Sure, come on by on your way out. … Jamie will be fine with it. … We might have to keep them apart, though."

Jamie frowned slightly. What was he 'going to be fine with' and who was Eddie going to be keeping apart? Him, he assumed, and someone Witten knew? He stuffed some kale and protein powder into the blender. Who did Witten know that he didn't get along with? One name popped to mind immediately. That kitten. Kiwi.

"Hey, Babe." Eddie wrapped her arms around her husband from behind.

"Hey." Jamie turned around to kiss his wife. "So?"

"So?" Eddie repeated.

"So, what am I going to be fine with?"

"Okay, so don't freak out. Rachel's dad had a small accident this morning taking down his Halloween decorations."

"Hope he's okay, but why would that make me freak out?"

"Rach says they think it's not too serious. Maybe a broken ankle and some bruises. But she needs to go up to Westchester to take care of the family dogs while he's being treated. And… now don't freak out here… she asked if we could watch Kiwi today so she doesn't have to take her to a house with two big dogs."

"She's bringing that cat here?" Jamie asked.

"Just for today." Eddied replied. "And also overnight. We didn't think it was the right time to introduce Kiwi to doggos; she's still getting used to people."

"You want to risk her cursing me for all day and overnight," Jamie half-joked as he finished putting the ingredients for his smoothie in the blender.

"You stop." Eddie slapped his arm lightly. "Rachel says Kiwi has been really well behaved and mostly stays in her crate. It'll be fine."

"It'll be fine." Jamie repeated. He pushed the start button on the blender, sending a fountain of ingredients all around the kitchen. He jumped back with a yelp and sent a look at his wife.

Eddie held up the lid that Jamie had neglected to put on top of the blender. "Not a curse, babe."

==BB==BB==

A few hours later, Jamie and Eddie were sitting on their couch, watching a football game on the television. Nearby, Kiwi was set up for the day with her carrier, a litter box on one side and a bowls for food and water on the other. Kiwi herself was curled up into a ball of fur on the soft blanket inside the carrier, sleeping soundly.

"Isn't she so cute?" Eddie asked.

"For a little furball curse machine, sure. How did Witten's father hurt himself again?"

"Not through any curse." Eddie shook her head. "He was taking down their Halloween lights. You know that step on folding ladders that says 'Don't stand here because you might fall and hurt yourself'? He was standing on the step above that and fell. And hurt himself."

"Lucky all he broke was an ankle," Jamie commented.

"Yeah." Eddie's phone dinged, and she looked down at the message that had popped up on the screen. "Shoot. Babe, I forgot I have a hair appointment in an hour. Will you two be okay for a little while?"

Jamie glanced over at the sleeping kitten. "Probably. But if you get back and I've met my demise in some improbable accident, you'll know who to blame."

"You." Eddie stood up and grabbed her purse and coat. "I'll see you two later."

It wasn't too long after Eddie departed for her beauty salon that Jamie felt his stomach start rumbling. Apparently, he'd used up all the fuel provided by the half of his breakfast smoothie he'd managed to salvage after the morning's blender accident. He headed to the apartment's kitchen to peruse the available options in the fridge. One item caught his eye – the leftover fried chicken from last night's family dinner. With memories of that headless chicken jumping at him fresh in his mind, Erin's chicken dinner hadn't seemed so appetizing; he'd settled for a double serving of Grandma's recipe macaroni and cheese instead. But now… now, that chicken looked really good. He pulled the leftovers container out of the fridge, put the chicken on a plate and gave it a quick trip through the microwave.

He returned to the couch with his lunch, but before he'd taken even one bite of the delicious-smelling chicken, he felt someone watching him. He looked over at Kiwi's carrier and saw the kitten sitting in front of it, watching him intently. "Hey, kitten."

==BB==BB==

"Mew?" Kiwi sniffed at the air again. Whatever the man – her new owner had called him Jamie today – had on that plate smelled super good, and better than the cat food in her dish. But did she want to risk getting close enough to him to try to get food from him?

Jamie looked up from his food and right at her. "Hey, are you hungry, you little demon spawn?"

"Mew!" Of course she was hungry. Rachel had been feeding her, but she was doing a lot of growing had more than a few missed meals to catch up on.

"Here you go." Jamie pulled a small chunk of chicken of one of the pieces on his plate and tossed it toward her.

Kiwi pounced on the morsel of chicken, held it down with her tiny claws and tore into it. It tasted even better than it smelled, and was gone all too soon. She wondered if Jamie would give her more. Maybe if she got just a little bit closer to him… She took a few tentative steps in his direction, then sat down and looked up at him. "Mew?"

Jamie put the chicken he'd just taken a bite out of down on his plate. "You want some more?" He tore off another small piece of chicken and held it down toward the floor.

Kiwi eyed the food. Clearly, Jamie wasn't going to toss it to her this time; she'd have to go get it from him. Was it worth the risk?

"C'mon, Kiwi. I won't hurt you." Jamie put the chicken on the floor by his feet.

Kiwi darted forward, grabbed the morsel in her teeth and scooted a few steps away to eat it. She looked up at Jamie again to see if there was any more, but he was putting his empty plate down on the side table.

"Sorry, kitty, no more chicken for either of us," Jamie told Kiwi.

Kiwi could still smell it, though. "Meow?"

"Nope. All gone." Jamie held his hand down toward her. "See?"

Kiwi slowly walked toward the hand. Maybe there was no more chicken, but there was still something chicken-scented on Jamie's fingers. Kiwi stepped a little closer and licked at the chicken grease.

"Hey, you really like chicken, don't you?" Jamie laughed. "Come up here. Maybe I can get some more meat off the drumstick."

As Jamie reached down for her, Kiwi had a brief moment of panic. She thought about using her claws and striking out at him, but he didn't seem angry, and if she did that, she definitely wouldn't get any more chicken. And she could always run to her little room if Jamie turned mean.

Jamie scooped up Kiwi and put her down on the couch next to him. "Okay, here's a little bit more." He pulled a small bit of chicken off the chicken bones and held it out to her. "And maybe a little more over here also."

Kiwi eagerly gobbled down each bit of chicken Jamie found for her. And then he was putting the plate down on the table next to him. Surely there was some more chicken there; she could still smell it! She started to carefully walk across Jamie's legs to get to the plate.

"Hey, you stay over here." Jamie picked Kiwi up and put her back at his side, holding her lightly against his leg with his arm. "I don't think those bones would be good for you."

"Mew!" Kiwi tried to wiggle free of Jamie's grip.

"No bones for you, you little demon." Jamie joked. "C'mon, maybe there's still some chicken grease on my fingers." He held his fingers up and let her take a few more licks at them. "You know, you're really not that bad," he commented as he curled his hand around Kiwi's head so he could rub the top of her head with his thumb. "And you really like chicken, don't you? You really attacked those pieces I gave you… Maybe I should call you next time a chicken situation comes up at work. You could be my little chicken ESU team."

Kiwi purred happily.

"You like that idea, Officer Demon Spawn?" Jamie teased as he continued to pet her back

Kiwi purred again and then yawned, curled up against Jamie's leg and promptly dozed off.

"Aw, shoot." Jamie looked down at the tiny sleeping ball of fur. He had planned to get up and take his lunch dishes to the kitchen, but he didn't want to wake Kiwi. The little thing at had a rough enough start in life; if she felt safe enough to sleep curled up against him, he'd let her. Although, now that he thought about it, a nap didn't seem like that bad of an idea for him either.

And when Eddie arrived home from her hair salon thirty minutes later, that's how she found the two of them, asleep on the couch. Both of them startled awake at the sound of the door opening. Jamie picked up Kiwi and turned to greet his wife. "Hey, Ed." Jamie's voice trailed off as he took in his wife's new hair color. "Wow."

"It's not that bad, is it?" Eddie asked, with a sad sigh.

"It's… very…" Jamie struggled for a word that wouldn't make Eddie feel worse than she clearly already did.

"Orange? Pumpkin-themed? Carrot-toppy? Traffic-cone-ish?" Eddie filled in for him. "There was a mix-up with the color. My stylist grabbed the wrong tube. "

"Traditional Irish?" Jamie finally supplied.

Eddie tried to laugh. "Jamie, I'm starting to think you may be right about this black cat bad luck thing."

"You think Kiwi did this? This nice little kitty?" Jamie petted the kitten he was holding in his arms. He leaned down toward her. "Kiwi, did you hear that? Ed thinks you cursed her. But I know you didn't, right?"

"Meow!"

So... the cover pic is one I found on the internet of Will Estes at an animal-charity event. It seemed to fit the story; that cat could be an older Kiwi. ;)