A/N: Severe Writer's Block. You know what tends to help with that? Reviews! No, really, it's a known fact. See, there's this thing called instant gratification, and when people are rewarded for their actions just after it's done, they often enjoy it so much and do it again. (There was studies done with pidgeons on this, and so on...anyways...) Reviews are like that to an author. Or atleast, to me. So don't worry, I won't get addicted. I'm not a review whore. But I'm at a very trying time in my school work, as most of us know, and it helps to keep the creative mind working with a few reviews here and there. That was my speil, and now here is the chapter! Enjoy.

Chapter 13 – Moments

Another day, another search. The junkyard teemed with life as flashes of fur of every possible cat color streaked through the pathways. Yet they were all searching for a black and white tom. Without that, the rest of the cats seemed to lose their spirit, slowly, as the realization that they may never see the plain colored tom again slowly crept over them.

Their faces had turned from one of hope to one of slow acceptance. But everyone refused to say what each cat was slowly beginning to understand. Their demeanors showed their acceptance and the beginning of their grief, while they spoke as cheerily as they could of the tom who they longed to see again.

While each cat of various colors ran about, one queen whose coat was purified of any existing color walked slowly through the junkyard like a ghost. She never pretended. She always knew. But she never spoke a word of it. The others tried to talk to her, but she would hear nothing of it. And when her mate came near her, she drew away, as though disgusted with him, and retreated to her den. At a loss, Plato stayed with his tom friends many a night. And the only sound that was often heard was the now haunting tune of the music box.

Cassandra seemed heartbroken that the tom had left without properly saying goodbye to her. She had known him the longest, bonded to him the most, and was probably putting hopes on him that she otherwise wouldn't have done. When Demeter spoke to her, she muttered, "I never knew how it felt to be on the other side of things."

Demeter sat beside her, atop the old rocking chair. "Are you going to leave to?" she asked.

Cassandra looked down to the other cats in the tribe. Her eyes fell on many of them, seeing their reactions to the loss of a good friend. "No," she finally said. "I made it so they wouldn't care if I was here or gone, anyway. So I might as well stay a while. Get them less and less used to me, until one day they realize I'm never coming back. Maybe they'll think my owners moved away, or make up some story like that."

"I'm sure they'd miss you," Demeter said.

"Not like this," Cassandra said, shaking her head. "I keep telling myself not to hate him for leaving. But after seeing this chaos…I can't help it. He should have been more distant."

"He had to find a way to live with this somehow," Demeter said softly.

"And how are we to live with this?" Cassandra asked bitterly. "We'll never have a fire again. These cats will never have his incredible energy here again, and things will become much quieter. And she," she nodded over to the den where Victoria had disappeared into. "She may never dance again."

--------

Munkustrap cracked his eyes open as Demeter slowly trudged into the den, looking exhausted in every aspect of the word. Mistoffelees leaving seemed to have an odd effect on her, like she was constantly thinking of something. Lately, she would look over to Munkustrap, considering something, before turning away, as though she had come to a sad conclusion.

By now, the silver tabby had no idea what to do with his mate. She had been moody since the beginning of her pregnancy, and he put up with a lot of it, but there was a conflict so severe battling inside that head of hers, that it had caused her to shut down at whatever the twins had said or done to her. Yet the loss of a friend had her acting even odder. It was almost as though she had expected it.

To put his mind at ease, and not upset his mate any more than he already had by prying, he tried to put the pieces together in his head; that she expected anyone she got close to eventually to leave her life. Yes, that made sense, and he was quite proud of himself for having been so clever as to figure that out. But upon further thought, she must have thought he was ready to leave, too.

It would only make sense, how she would be so affectionate and kind at one moment, and the next, become so distant. It was the only way to put his mind at ease for now, until he could hopefully ask her about it later. He had to think of the kittens, and how difficult everything must be for her at the time.

"Demeter?" he got up and stretched. The queen quietly turned her attention to the tom. He rose to his feet and walked over to her, putting a paw in her paw, and lifting it up, making her look him in the eye. "I want you to know that whatever happens, I'll always love you and never leave you."

Demeter smiled sadly. Munkustrap was determined to make her believe him. "No, I mean it. I'll travel to hell and back for you, if you would let me!"

"You wouldn't have to," Demeter said matter-of-factly. "I would drag you there and leave you to rot. Not on purpose, but these things tend to happen when I'm involved."

Munkustrap flinched. Surely she was joking. He let out a nervous chuckle, and when she smiled in return, he tried to calm down a bit. "That's darker humor than I expect from you."

"Life tends to favor that type of irony," Demeter said. Munkustrap stared at his queen. He was almost tempted to say someone switched her body and was making her speak so out of character. He shook his head.

"You know what I'm going to ask you," he said softly.

"What's wrong with me?" she asked. "If only it were so easy to explain. But it's not." She shook her head. "When you look at Victoria, what do you see?"

"She's…very depressed," Munkustrap said.

"I wouldn't say depressed," Demeter reasoned. "More…that she's dying." Munkustrap glanced over to the entryway, feeling ready to bolt over to Victoria's den and make sure she was okay. "I mean to say, that when someone you love leaves you, it feels like your hearts been shattered. And when you're given no reason, the only thing you can do is wait for answers, and none will ever come. And that slowly kills you. You never recover from that, and you're not who you were anymore. You become something else. I've never seen it before, but I see it now. You never wake from the dream. You just walk into a nightmare, and no one can wake you up."

"Demeter…" Munkustrap stopped her. "Victoria has her entire family behind her. If there is one thing that should always be there, it's family. Mistoffelees…he betrayed her trust and left. He didn't care enough to--"

"He did care!" Demeter snapped, suddenly becoming angry and pulling away from the tom. "And what Victoria is going through, he's gone through a millions times worse over and over again until he's become what he is now and believes what he does now. It's not his fault! It's the Everlasting Cat! He made us this way!" Demeter flinched at her own words before regaining her composure.

"Us?" Munkustrap pressed. But Demeter seemed to teeter on her feet. He quickly caught her before she fell and sat her down. "Calm down! You're in no condition to be getting so upset!"

Demeter took in a few shaky breaths. "Munkustrap," she said meekly. "I don't know what's going to happen to any of us. To Bomba, me, the kittens, to…you…" She let her head hang. "I'm scared."

----------

Bombalurina stood by the Rum Tum Tugger as he looked up on a fence. A flier was there with a little black and white tom wearing a bow tie, being held by a little girl. The words, "Missing" "Reward" and "We miss our Kitty" were all Bombalurina cared to read.

"I didn't know he had a family," Bombalurina said.

"Has," Tugger corrected coldly, as he walked past the pole and walked in a certain direction. Bombalurina followed behind him, as they walked through the neighborhoods and finally arrived at a quaint little human house. There was a cat entrance on the back door, and in the backyard there were corks, knifes, and forks gathered around, with a human sized top hat and some cards strewn about.

"He really made himself at home," Bombalurina said mournfully.

"He told me," Tugger began, as he looked down at one of the playing cards, picking up a queen of hearts. "That when he came into the area, he began looking for a place to stay. This family fed stray cats, so he came back every day. He was very friendly with them, so they accepted him into the family…bought him a collar…bought him a cat bed, though he always slept in the hall…"

"I see," Bombalurina said.

"He always seemed a little sad to talk about his humans," Tugger said, as he walked up to the kitty door.

"Where are you going?"

"The humans aren't home."

"No! Tugger!" Bombalurina raced up to the tom and pulled his arm back, to which the cat yowled in pain and turned for the first time that day looking at the red queen. "I'm sorry," she said quickly. "I didn't mean to touch your injured arm…"

"Leave me alone, Bomba," barked the tom. "It's bad enough I'm like this because of your insane sister. Now I have to find my best friend." The queen was dumbfounded. The tom sighed. "Go away, Bomb. I don't need you right now." He turned tail and went into the house. Bombalurina stood there as she heard Tugger call for Mistoffelees inside of the house. She tried to ignore the pit in her stomach, the sadness in her heart.

Instead she decided to wait in the bushes, waiting for the tom to come out and head home. She would follow him from afar, make sure he was okay, and make sure he makes it back to the junkyard fine. Then she didn't know what she would do. She wore out her usefulness to the tribe, it seemed. All the time they had stayed had decreased her status in the tribe, and Bombalurina didn't trust for one second that she could rebuild her status and earn her desired protection.

But what would she be able to do now? Try her best to forget. Sit back and forget.

----------

Demeter was in her den alone, mindlessly shuffling about, arranging new items to her liking, throwing some old, useless stuff out, and dragging some nice, comfy things in. Where their little bed had once laid, there were now two extra pillows to create an even grander bed, blankets strewn about, and a blue crocheted blanket atop it all. It began at the bottom, but through Demeter's constant reworking of the blankets, it made its way to the top.

She then stepped back to look at her handy work. Almost perfect. She walked back to the bed and took some blankets in her paws before pulling them away forcefully, teetering backwards.

The loud squeak was heard throughout the junkyard, and eventually, Munkustrap came back to his den. He looked down at the queen struggling to get to her feet. "What happened to you!" Munkustrap asked with a mix of concern and amusement as he helped her to her feet. "And…what happened to our den?"

Demeter dusted her tail off. "I don't know," she said. "It just…isn't right! When did we get so much junk in here?"

"Dem?" Munkustrap smirked. "We live in a junkyard."

"Well," Demeter huffed, as she went back to the blankets and tried to pull them out to rearrange them again. She teetered slightly, but was Munkustrap ready to catch her this time. "That doesn't mean we have to make our den a reflection of where we live!"

"Hmm…" Munkustrap nodded as he pried the blankets out of Demeter's paws. "This must be the nesting Jennyanydots was talking about. I was wondering when—Those are my favorite blankets, Dem! Leave them!" He finally won the battle for the blankets and tossed them haphazardly on the cushions, laughing at Demeter's horror. He then sat her down on the blankets, then followed, laying on his back and looking as though he had never been more comfortable in his life.

Demeter reached to fix one of the blankets, and Munkustrap grabbed her paw, pulled her down, and held her tight. "See?" he said. "Nice and comfy."

Demeter pouted but tried to let it go.

---------

The Rum Tum Tugger came home seemingly by himself. All eyes were on him as he entered. Not one cat noticed the pair of eyes that watched him to make sure he got home safe. Everyone was concerned with him, as they should be.

No on cared to notice Bombalurina crawl into the junkyard a few hours later, her eyes puffy, her demeanor sullen. She crept into a corner, and fell asleep for the night.

----------

Munkustrap woke up to see Demeter looking at him with a smile on her face. He glanced out the window to see that it was just before dawn, then looked back up at her. "You know what I'm thinking?" she said.

"Pregnant queen slays silver tabby?"

Demeter cuffed the tom. "No," she frowned. Then playfully, she said, "Running away together! Away from all of this! Just you and me and the kittens, and we could live happily ever after."

"Dem," he smiled and kissed her on her forehead. "Don't be silly and go back to sleep."

"No, I mean it," Demeter nodded. "It wouldn't be too hard to run with the kittens as they are now…"

"How do you expect to run in your condition? You have trouble standing, let alone running away."

"You're supposed to carry me," Demeter said. "I've thought that much through."

"Why are you saying all this?" he asked lazily.

"Because, I…" She took a deep breath. "I'll never get another moment like this. This is my only chance."

Now Munkustrap was at attention. "To leave?"

"Yes," Demeter said, then shook her head. "I mean, no. I mean…I have some courage right now…if I can just tell you everything…"

The tom sat up straight, forgetting sleep had just evaded him. "I'm listening."

"But I can't now," Demeter said. "Not here. You have to come with me, somewhere, far from here, where we can be safe, and it would just be us. And I would know that you wouldn't turn on me."

"Turn on you?" Munkustrap asked. "Why would I turn on you? Dem," he sighed, suddenly upset again. "I'm not like the toms you knew in the past."

"I know that," Demeter said, putting a paw on her stomach. "I know that very well, but you're still a cat." Munkustrap stared. "Well, yes, I know I'm stating the obvious." She groaned in frustration. "This isn't easy for me. You have no idea what I've been through."

"Then just tell me," he urged. "I promise you, I'm not going to turn on you, or whatever you're afraid will happen."

"You'll look at me differently," Demeter said. "If nothing else. I have nothing without my mother to look for anymore. That's all Bomba and I have been working for since she left us, and we don't have her anymore. Everything was supposed to be okay when she was with us again, and now we don't even know what happened to her. And…I thought that all I had left was Bomba, but she wasn't there for me. And then there was you. So now all I have is you, it seems. And I just can't think of what will happen if you leave me! I couldn't handle it."

"I'm not going to leave you," Munkustrap said desperately, suddenly scared by Demeter's intensity. "You have to believe me, Dem. I love you, I'm you mate! I wouldn't leave you."

"But that's just the thing," Demeter said. "You say you wouldn't leave me. But what if I said I would leave you, no matter what?"

Munkustrap stared in disbelief. "What?" he hissed. Demeter looked down.

"No, it's not that you would do anything," she said. "But leaving is what we do. What Bomb and I used to do. It's all we know!"

"You want to leave me?" Munkustrap asked, hurt.

"No, I don't want to," Demeter said.

"But you would," he said, suddenly angry. "Just because you're used to it? Is that what

you're saying?"

"I don't know. I shouldn't have said anything. This came out all wrong," Demeter put her paws to her head. But Munkustrap sat in silence, jaw clenched in anger.

"And that's why you defend Mistoffelees?" he asked. "Leaving without a trace is something that's okay with you? That's what you plan to do to me?"

"I…Munkustrap, please calm down! I'm having enough trouble trying to say what I mean to say."

"I think I'm hearing what you're saying perfectly fine, Dem," he said, getting up suddenly. He jerked towards the den entrance, then back, then towards the entrance again, unsure of what to do. "I need to process this." He walked out the door.

"Wait!" Demeter squeaked, struggling to get to her feet quickly. "Munkustrap, you have to hear everything I'm trying to say! Mu--" She grimaced in pain as she finally got to her feet, but ignored it as she tried her best to follow her mate. Suddenly filled with terror that he wouldn't come back, she felt she couldn't leave him out of her sights.

"Mu-Munkustrap!" she panted as she started to race as fast as she could after him. "Stop, please! Listen to me, will you?" The tom's hackles were raised as he stormed off. He was much faster than she. "Munkustrap! I'm carrying a litter here! I can't walk as fast as you!" Demeter thanked the Everlasting Cat that Munkustrap couldn't let her pleas go, as he stopped in his tracks and clenched his fist, as though angry with himself for being brought up with proper manners.

"Demeter, I think I need to be alone right now."

"Well, can't you be alone with me?" Demeter asked. "I…can't chase you anymore." She grabbed her sides before sitting down on an old wooden box, groaning in pain, closing her eyes. She heard footfalls coming close to her and added a sigh of relief to her groans of pain. When she opened her eyes, Munkustrap was looking down at her with a mixture of emotions on his face.

"When I say I want to be alone, that tends to mean I want to be by myself."

'No kidding,' Demeter thought bitterly to herself. Out loud, she said, "I didn't want you to leave me."

"Like you would like to leave me?" he hissed.

"It's not that, Munku," she said. She could feel tears prickling in her eyes, and while she would do anything to stop them, she was in far too much pain and too exhausted and emotional to do so. As the tears began to fall, she mourned her lost moment, and the reemergence of the only thing she knew how to do: lie. "I want to stay. I want to stay with you. But I'm so used to leaving before things get too serious…because we couldn't stay too long.

"We needed to find my mother as soon as possible. For us. We weren't going to stay here long because we needed to find our mother." She sighed. She couldn't say anymore.

"But then you found out she had died," Munkustrap finished for her. "Demeter," he said forcefully, kneeling and taking her paw in his paws. "Just tell me you won't leave me, and everything will be okay. You don't have to cry. We can forget this entire conversation, and you won't have to worry anymore. Because I would do anything to keep you by my side."

'I don't believe you,' were the words that wanted to come out of her mouth. "Munkustrap…I'm…kind of in a lot of pain here."

"So am I, Dem. You have to realize how much some words hurt…"

"No, I mean..." She stopped and groaned. "I mean I'm in actual…real pain. Very real pain!"

Munkustrap gave her a questioning look. "What?" She put a paw on her stomach, before closing her eyes and choking down a cry of pain. "Oh…OH!" Munkustrap leapt to his feet. "What? They're come now?"

"Well, I don't know," she said between clenched teeth. "It certainly feels like it."

"Here?"

"Everlasting Cat, NO!" she yelled. "I'm having my kittens in the nice little nest I made, no matter what!" She then gasped in pain. "Oh, I didn't think it actually hurt this much…"

"Come on," Munkustrap said as he picked the queen up and carried her in his arms. "Are you okay?"

"Uh…A little uncomfortable, but…I'll be okay." She buried her face in his fur as she was carried back to the den. "Munkustrap?" she whispered.

"I'm hurting you?"

"No…I have to say," she took a deep breath, looking up to the tom as he concentrated on getting to their den as fast as he could. "I run back and forth on things when it comes to you," she admitted. "Because I don't know what will happen. And I'm scared."

"You don't have to be scared, Demeter, I'll never leave you, no matter what."

'Just say it in return, Demeter,' she told herself, knowing Munkustrap was thinking the same thing. Instead, she opted for something different. "I've never cared about something more than you."

"That will change come morning," Munkustrap said, smiling to his mate.

The sun began to rise, and a new day was dawning. And when the cats of the junkyard would assemble there in the morning to look for one lost tom, they would find three new members of the tribe.

A/N #2: The source of my writer's block was deciding what to do next to get to the next big part of the story. Then I couldn't decide what conflicts to save for later. In the end, this is what came out. I didn't want it to be ground shaking, but I had to set up the next leg of the story. Anyways...here's hoping writer's block won't hold me captive for two weeks again! Until next chapter...And tell me what you think!