Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. I own Reggie, Betty Rogers, Fred the bear, Nathan, Oliver, O'Malley, Jacob Peterson, Betty Peterson, Jessica, Louis, James, Tim, Eric, Mark Evans, Tyler Stevens, Paul Waters, Allison Enders and Elizabeth Enders.
Welcome to the Family
Chapter 7Sara sighed, staring dejectedly around her empty apartment. The pillows and blanket Reggie had been using were folded neatly atop the arm of the couch and she'd arranged the couch cushions just the way that Sara liked them before she'd left, 'though she hadn't bothered to do that the whole week. The duffel bag that had somehow always managed to end up in front of the doorway for Sara to trip over was gone and Sara found herself extremely upset over this. Her sister hadn't even been gone a day and she already missed her!
The sudden ringing of her cell phone brought Sara out of her musings and she answered with a sniffled, "Hello?"
"Sara?" Nick's voice was concerned and Sara could just see the crease in his brow, "What's the matter babe?"
Sara sniffled again, pushing away her tears as she answered, "Nothing's wrong, Nicky."
Nock's soft smile could be heard in his voice as he stated more than asked, "You miss her, don't you."
"Yes," she answered reluctantly, plopping dejectedly on the couch as she said, "I'm so used to the cushions all over the place, her shoes and duffel bag in the way and my stereo on a different station every time I walk in. It's too clean and too quiet."
"See, I knew you were going to feel like this so I got you a present." Nick said, his proud grin fairly oozing through the connection.
"Really?" Sara perked up slightly, "What is it?"
"Well, if you'd open the door then you'll see," Nick said, and Sara could hear his familiar laugh through the door.
Sara grinned, flipping the phone shut as she jumped off the couch to comply. She flung the door open to find Nick in the doorway a medium-sized box in one hand, his cell phone in the other. He grinned at Sara as she opened the door, his eyes dancing with amusement.
"A present for the sad lady," he grinned, handing over the box carefully, "Careful-and don't shake it."
Sara grinned excitedly, moving quickly-but carefully- back to he sofa, leaving an amused and slightly nervous Nick to shut the door. Eyes dancing, Sara opened the box flaps, squealing with delight when she found out what the box contained.
Nestled on a soft blanket inside the box were a pair of kittens. They were both orange, although one was slightly darker and the other had a white paw and a white ring around one eye. They both stared sleepily up at Sara, tiny pink noses twitching at the curious new smells.
"Oh!" Sara breathed excitedly, "They're so cute!
Nick grinned, sliding onto the couch beside her and reaching into the box to tickle one under the chin, "They're both boys. I figured that way you wouldn't have to get 'em fixed. A buddy of mine gave 'em to me for free-his cat had 6 and he didn't want any of them. They've already got their shots too."
"What are there names?" Sara asked, giggling as the darker kitten swatted at her dangling fingers.
"They don't have any. You get to name them." Nick grinned, "Now what are you going to name them?"
Sara took only a moment to think before happily declaring, "Oliver and O'Malley!"
"As in Oliver and Company and The Aristocrats?" Nick laughed.
"Yes," Sara grinned, "The darker one is O'Malley and the lighter one will be Oliver."
Nick shook his head, staring at Sara with unconcealed desire, huskily murmuring, "You're crazy."
"Thanks," Sara whispered breathlessly, her own desire making her eyes sparkle and dance slightly.
Nick grinned, putting the kitten box on the ground before pulling Sara into him. He caught her lips greedily, moaning as he felt her willing response.
And in the box, two kittens purred contentedly.
XoXoXoXo Reggie yawned as she rolled out of bed, carelessly throwing her hair up into a bun. Stifling a yawn, she padded from her room, stopping in the bathroom before continuing downstairs to raid her brother's fridge."Hey Reg," Greg grinned, eyeing her rumpled appearance as she stepped into the kitchen where he and Nate were sitting at the kitchen table, playing cards.
"'Lo," she answered, unembarrassed by her appearance as she walked to the closest cupboard, extracting a Pop Tart with a happy grin.
"Don't eat too much," Nate said distractedly as he stared at his cards with a furrowed brow, "We're going to mom's for dinner in about an hour."
"What?" Reggie screeched, uneaten PopTart forgotten halfway to her mouth, "Why did you tell her I was coming today? I was going to wait until tomorrow to talk to her-the less contact with her the better lately!"
"Tell me about it," Nate said with a roll of his eyes, cards forgotten, "And I didn't tell her. The oh-so-lovely Jessica did."
"Ugh. Stupid bitch," Reggie cursed.
"Erm-not to sound rude or nothing," Greg interrupted with an upraised eyebrow, "But what the hell are you guys talking about?"
Reggie giggled at her boyfriend's puzzlement before sighing resignedly. Pulling herself up to sit on the counter, she began, "Nate and I don't exactly get along with our mom anymore. We used to, but after I found out I was adopted and decided to search for my bio. family, she's always on my case about something."
"And, of course, she flipped out when she found out I was gay," Nate said dryly, "I told her when I was 18 and she told me to get out of her house-talked about how I was an abomination to God and such. But once Dad found out I hadn't actually left but been forced out, he put his foot down and basically told her to shut up."
"Dad's the better parent," Reggie said simply with a soft smile, "So, anyway, that's why we didn't want to go. Oh-and Jessica is my older brother, Louis', wife-she and I hate each other, just because."
"It's hard to imagine anyone hating you," Greg said truthfully.
"Suck up," Nate teased with a grin.
Greg rolled his eyes, "Kiss my ass."
"Gladly," Nate answered with a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows.
"Sorry, Nate, he's mine." Nate grinned, hopping off the counter to wrap her arms around Greg's neck from behind, her perfectly intact Pop Tart forgotten on the counter top.
Greg smiled, lifting on of her arms to place a gentle kiss on her wrist, smile widening as he felt her pulse flutter wildly at the action. Reggie smiled shyly back at him in answer leaning down to press a gentle kiss to his lips before stepping away from him.
"What time do we have to be at Mom and Dad's?" Reggie asked with a reluctant wrinkle of her nose.
"6"
"It's quarter after 5!" Reggie shrieked, eyes widening, "Get off your asses and get ready!"
"Yes'm!" Nate saluted, marching cheekily from the room.
"Relax, baby!" Greg soothed gently, standing to slip his arms around her waist, "It's not that big of a deal if we're late."
"I really don't want to go!" Reggie whined, wrapping her own arms around his waist and resting her head on his chest, "It really must suck that you have to put up with meeting The Parents of your girlfriend-of-one-week." She added, her woods muffled by his shirt.
"Just a little," Greg answered, gently kissing the top of her head, "But this just means you'll have to spend our first holiday together meeting our family."
"Kay"
Reggie agreed without hesitation, before pulling away and playfully
swatting his arm as she turned, calling over her shoulder, "Come
on, Greggy, time to get ready!"
XoXoXoXo
After a teenage-like make-out session (tongued, giggles, moans and wandering hands included) on Sara's couch, Nick and Sara took Oliver and O'Malley to the Pet store. Both kittens had fallen in love with Sara and the feeling was mutual-which earned her a lot of teasing from Nick.
As they stepped into the store, both kittens, who'd been cradled in Sara's arms, climbed up onto either one of her shoulders. O'Malley sat on her right shoulder, his tiny tail wrapped halfway across her neck-since that was as far as it could reach- while Oliver, on her left, leaned lightly against the side of her head, his own head moving curiously from side to side, like at a tennis match, as he gazed about him.
Nick laughed at her but slipped his arm around her waist, chuckling slightly when O'Malley swatted at his shoulder, "I think the like you more than they like me, Sar."
Grinning mischievously, Sara answered, "Love, everyone likes me more than you!"
"You wish," Nick grinned back, chuckling as Sara's own arm slipped around his waist as she stuck her hand into his pocket.
The next hour was spent on buying anything and everything for Sara's newest roommates. Both received a new collar (black for Oliver and blue for O'Malley), a bed big enough to fit two full-grown cats for each of them (and when Nick pointed this out to her, Sara promptly told him to shut up and let her spoil 'her babies') a couple of scratching posts (which both cats sniffed dubiously), a semi-large contraption of tunnels and rooms (Nick loudly lamented the 'assembly required' label, knowing that he'd be the one assembling it-until Sara gave him a sexy pout and batted her eyelashes prettily at him), a hunter green litter box and a cart full of toys, food and snacks.
An hour and a half after entering the store, Nick pushed the cart, laden with their purchases and both kittens, down the cash aisle. Sara, walking ahead of him, stopped suddenly, causing him to only narrowly miss her.
"Look Nicky," she said excitedly, turning to him with a grin, oblivious to his near miss, as she pointed at the large blue machine in front of her, "It makes name and address tags!"
Nick raised an eyebrow at his other half, his lips curving into an amused half-smile at Sara's antics. Shaking his head slightly at her childlike enthusiasm for the kittens, he pushed the cart forward, parking it sideways in front of the machine as the pair looked at the screen.
"Fill in the blanks, pick your design, hit enter and your tag will be ready in minutes," Nick read, grinning slightly as Sara shuddered at the sensation of his breath on the back of her neck after she'd inserted the required 5$ bill.
"Name: O'Malley," Sara typed in, giggling as she only verbally added, "the alley cat."
Nick laughed, standing behind her as she typed. He wrapped his arms around her waist, settling his chin on her shoulder as he made joking comments as she filled in the OWNER, ADDRESS and CITY spots and then hit enter.
"Oh, look!" she yelled with excitement, pointing at the screen where different tag designs had appeared on the screen, among them a bone, a paw, an oval and a rectangle.
"Pick the paw," Nick urged, having gotten caught up in her childlike enthusiasm.
"What if I don't want to pick the paw?" Sara teased, eyes dancing.
"You want to," Nick assured her, making her shiver as he pressed a kiss to her neck, "it's the coolest one there for a cat- and everyone knows you've just got to be co-ol!"
Sara giggled, hitting the button for the paw tag. While the computer engraved the information, Sara settled back against Nick's chest, resting her head back against his shoulder to grin up at him.
Nick smiled gently back, kissing just beside her eye as he murmured, "You know what, Sara Sidle?"
"What?" Sara grinned, her smile stretching across her face as she said her part in the familiar conversation that the pair had had numerous times-and one that Sara never tired of.
"I love you." Nick grinned back, kissing her nose just as the machine beeped, spitting out O'Malley's new tag.
"Love you too," Sara smiled before repeating the earlier process for the tag but making it a blue paw for Oliver.
Once Oliver's tag was done, Sara picked up both from the small container that the machine had ejected them into. Turning and stepping out of Nick's arms, Sara walked over to the cart, where the two kittens were sitting in the kiddy seat, staring over the cart's handle at the pair of human's curiously.
Oliver didn't take well to having his neck encased in a collar and, while his girlfriend was distracted with the struggle to put the collar on the kitten, Nick put in another 5$bill and began typing. He finished typing and picked the bone design when Sara had finally collared Oliver and she turned to him suspiciously, having heard him hit the enter key.
"What are you doing Stokes?" she demanded, eyeing him dubiously.
"You'll see, darlin'," Nick grinned back before stepping forward, asking courteously, "Would you like me to help with O'Malley?"
Sara continued to eye Nick, but stepped back to allow Nick the honours. O'Malley, unlike Oliver, just stared calmly up at Nick while he clipped on the collar and tag. Moments after he finished, the machine beeped.
Nick picked up the red bone-tag with a grin. Chuckling slightly, he handed the tag over to Sara, grinning mischievously. Sara accepted it, looking down before bursting into laughter.
It read;
"Nicholas Stokes
Property of Sara Meaghan Sidle
Please return if her gets lost-"
Sara giggled, shaking her head at him before handing it back, fully expecting him to just throw it out as a practical joke. Nick, however, grinned at her before threading the tag onto a black cord necklace around his neck.
At
Sara's curious, questioning look, Nick grinned, leaning forward to
whisper in her ear, "I'm always yours, Sara. Always."
XoXoXoXo
A/N Next one will be ups ASAP!
'My Luv,
Red