A/N: I apologize if this chapter seems scattered. It's really just a bunch of random scenes. Hopefully you'll like it anyway. Until 32...

Chapter 31

Katrina begged so much to see the kittens that after dinner, Alison finally gave in and called Eve, asking her if it was okay if they dropped by. Eve said yes, so Alison and Katrina headed on over there.

"Oh, Alison! Look at you!" Eve said when she opened the door. "You look great!"

Alison rolled her eyes. "Oh please. I look like a cow."

"Hey. Cows are very beautiful animals. And you're beautiful too."

Alison smiled. "Well, thank you."

"Well come on in."

"Where are the kitties?" Katrina asked impatiently, jumping up and down.

Before Eve could answer, Danny came running into the living room, the black and white kitten in his arms, and the two other kittens and their mama trailing behind.

"Right there," Eve said, and Katrina ran over to play with them.

Alison walked over to the couch to sit down. "Oh wow, they really are walking all over the place. I can't believe how big they've gotten. Last time I saw them, they barely had their eyes open."

Eve sat down beside her. "Yeah, they grow fast."

"What are you going to do with all of these kittens? Give them away?"

"Oh, you know what? I found out who the mama cat belongs to."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. The cat's owner is some elderly lady who lives like three streets over. Well evidently, she got really sick and her niece had to come and take care of her. She ended up bringing her back to her home in Canada. She wasn't even aware her aunt had a pet until she was well enough to speak and starting calling out for her cat. Anyway, to make a long story short, the niece made a few calls and somehow found out about my flyer and got in touch with me. So I told her that I would hold on to the cats until she was able to drive back down to New York to get the rest of her aunt's belongings. She said she'd pay me for my trouble but it was really no trouble at all. And she said if I could find homes for the kittens, that would be great, and if we couldn't, she'd just bring them back with the mama cat."

Alison watched Katrina and Danny playing with the kittens on the floor. "Well Danny certainly seems attached to them. I'm sure he'll be sad to see them go."

"We've actually decided to let him keep one. Danny begged, and Ian gave in. He said it was time for Danny to have a pet anyway. So, changing subjects, how was your trip?"

"Eve, Romania is so beautiful."

"Really? And here I thought Transylvania would be pretty creepy, considering you know who."

Alison laughed. "Well, maybe once it was, but no, it's kind of like a step back in time. Lots of old houses, plenty of countryside, farms animals, people riding around in horse and carriages."

"Seriously?" Eve laughed.

"Yeah. We had so much fun. And the best part was getting to see where Rafe grew up. He tries to hide it but I think he really misses it sometimes."

"Mommy! Look at him!" Katrina interrupted, laughing as she held the little yellow kitten in her arms.

"I see him, sweetie. I think he likes you."

"Oh, Mommy! Can I keep him?"

"Katrina, you have a pet already. You have a pony."

"Yeah but I can't keep a pony in the house 'cause it's too big! But a kitty is really small!"

"I don't know, sweetie."

"Oh please, Mommy! Please! He's so cute! Look at him, Mommy. He's purring 'cause he's happy. Please say yes!"

"Well…we'll see what your daddy says."

Katrina looked over to Danny and grinned. "That means I get to keep him!" she whispered. "Daddy will say yes. I know he will!"

"What are you going to name him?" he asked.

"Tiger, 'cause he looks like a little tiger."

"I'm going to call mine Dude."

Katrina laughed. "That's a silly name!"

"No it's not. Whenever I call him, I can just go, "'Hey, Dude!' Or 'Come here, Dude!'"

Katrina laughed. "You could call him Oreo 'cause he's black and white like an Oreo cookie! Or you could name is Sylvester, 'cause he kinda looks like Sylvester!"

"No, his name is Dude."

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When they arrived home, Katrina wasted no time in asking her father about the kitten. She ran over to the couch where her father was. "Daddy! Daddy! Mrs. Eve is giving away the kittens! Can I get one? Please! Danny gets to keep one!"

"You really want a kitten, princess?"

"Uh huh! Please, Daddy! I want the little yellow one! He's so cute. And I already have a name for him!"

Rafe smiled. "Well, I don't see why not. If it's okay with your mother, it's okay with me."

"Mommy said it was okay!"

"Well then it's settled!"

"YAY! I love you, Daddy!" Katrina gave her father a smacking kiss on his cheek before running up the stairs to her room.

Alison laughed softly, sitting down in the space Katrina had vacated. "Rafe, are you sure about this?"

"Sure, why not? I think having a pet will be a good thing for her. It'll teach her responsibility."

"Okay, but do you really want to bring another mouth to feed into this house when we already have a baby on the way?"

"It's a kitten. It's like this big." Rafe held his hands about six inches apart. "How much could it possibly eat?"

Alison gave Rafe a look.

"What? Well, I can't very well say "no" to her now. She loves that kitten. It would break her heart."

"Look, I don't have a problem with the cat. I just want you to be sure you know what you're getting yourself into. You do realize that you'll to have to help her out, don't you? I'll be busy with the baby. I don't have time to deal with a cat too."

"Well sure, but I think Katrina's old enough to know that she has to feed it and give it attention. And I think she will."

"What about cleaning out the litter box. Is she going to do that?"

Rafe frowned. He had not thought of that. "I suppose we may have to help her out a little with that."

Alison laughed. "No, sweetheart, you have to help her out. Pregnant woman can't go anywhere near litter boxes. I could get toxoplasmosis. At least that's what Eve told me. And she's a doctor, so I should listen."

Rafe thought about that for a moment. "Maybe we should train that cat to go outside."

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Katrina watched her mother as she slept. She knew her mother liked to sleep, because Daddy was always saying that, but she wanted her mother to wake up.

Katrina traced her finger along her mother's cheek. She laughed when her mother moved her hand to her face, trying to move away whatever was tickling her.

Alison opened her eyes, realizing it was Katrina.

Katrina laughed. "Hi, Mommy."

"Hi, baby. Where's your daddy?" she asked with a yawn.

"In the shower."

Alison reached for the clock on the nightstand to check the time. "What are you doing up so early?"

"I want to go to the big school today."

"No sweetie. You don't go today."

Katrina placed her hands on her mother's rounded stomach, rubbing it in little circles. "But if I go today, maybe Gabe we'll come out. 'Cause you said Gabe would come when I started school."

Alison pulled her daughter close to her. "Oh, sweetie, I know you want to see your brother, and I know you want to start school, but it's just not time yet. But guess what?"

"What?"

"I'm going to go to work this morning, so I'm going to let you spend the day over at Danny's. So you can play with those kittens all you want. How does that sound?"

"YAY!"

Alison winced. "Not so loud, Katrina."

"Yay," she whispered.

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Alison waddled out of the restroom and gave a little sigh.

Holly, her part-time help, looked over at her with concern. "You okay?"

"Oh, I'm fine. It's just that if this baby makes me go to the bathroom one more time. That must be the third time I've gone all morning." Alison slowly eased herself onto the barstool at the counter. "But I'm okay. Thanks for asking."

"When my mom was pregnant with my little sister, she was the same way."

"Did she recover?" Alison joked.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Good. There's hope for me." Alison turned her head up, then turned to Holly. "Is something burning?"

Holly's eyes flew wide open. "Oh my gosh! The muffins!" Holly jumped out of her seat and ran to the oven. She grabbed a mitten and opened the oven door, waving away the smoke as she pulled out a tray of semi-charred muffins. "Oh gosh! They're ruined!"

Alison made her way to the back to see how bad it was.

"Oh, Alison! I'm so sorry! I meant to take them out but I got distracted by a customer and I forgot to set the timer. I completely forgot about them!"

"Don't worry, it's okay."

"No, it's not okay. They're ruined! It won't happen again! I promise!"

Alison smiled. The poor girl was really upset about it. "Holly, really, it's okay. I've burned quite a few muffins over the years myself."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. We all have. And this really isn't so bad. The tops of some of these are still salvageable. We'll give them to Jack and Jamal. They'll eat them. They're boys. They'll eat anything."

Holly laughed. "Alright. I guess I'll go start on another batch, one that I won't burn."

Just then, the phone rang. Alison picked it up to answer it. "Alison's Heavenly Delights. This is Alison speaking."

"Alison, hey." It was Lucy.

"Oh hi, Lucy! How are you?"

"I'm good. How are you doing?"

"Just fine."

"Listen, what are you doing Friday night?"

"Um, let's see, unless Gabe has any plans of coming early, nothing!"

"Good! Keep it that way."

"Why? What's going on?"

"I assume Livvie told you her good news, right?"

"Oh yeah, of course. I think I'm more excited about it than she is though." Alison laughed. "So what's going on Friday night?"

"A surprise baby shower, of course."

"Oh, Lucy! That's a great idea!"

"Yeah, I thought so. She's been so stressed about all of this lately, I think some baby gifts are just the thing to cheer her up."

"Definitely. Do you need me to help you with anything?"

"Not a thing except to make sure she gets here. I want to keep this a surprise, okay? So I'm going to give Livvie a call and tell her that I'm inviting you two over for a girls' night out evening. Movies, food, stuff like that. But of course, it's really going to be a baby shower."

Alison laughed. "Lucy, I love it!"

"I knew you would! Well look, I got to go because I have a lot of planning to do! I'll call you later, alright?"

"Alright. Bye, Lucy."

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Over at the Ramsey house, it was complete and total chaos.

"Charlotte Ramsey! No running!" Livvie yelled as her daughter laughed and ran back into the living room, ducking under a table to hide.

Jack wasn't helping matters, egging her on as he chased her.

Livvie had one nerve left, and those two were on it. "Jack! Will you take her outside? Please! I need some peace and quiet!"

Jack stopped what he was doing, realizing that tone in her voice. "Come on, Char, let's play outside. Mommy needs some rest right now."

Charlotte giggled as she ran outside, slamming the screen door behind her.

"We'll just be outside if you need anything…"

"GO!" Livvie ordered.

Jack nodded, then rushed outside. He learned quickly not to anger Livvie when she was in one of her moods.

Livvie sat down on the couch, taking in a deep breath. But before she could relax, the phone rang. Livvie saw the cordless laying on the table across the room. She grumbled in frustration, realizing she would have to get up to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Livvie! Hey! I need your help with something!"

"Not now, Lucy. I'm not in the mood."

"Oh, having a bad morning, huh?"

"I'm sorry, Lucy. I didn't mean for it to come out that way. It's just that everyone seems to be in such a good mood around here and I'm completely miserable. I haven't had a bite to eat all morning because I can't keep anything down. Charlotte's been driving me crazy. And I've got a splitting headache which I can't take anything for because I'm pregnant!"

"I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry. I'm sure you're tired of me complaining. I did enough of that at dinner the other night."

"Oh don't be silly. You can vent to me as much as you want."

"What is it that you need, Lucy?

"I need to know what you're doing Friday night."

"Nothing. Why?"

"Remember when I told you that I was thinking of planning a baby shower for Alison?"

"Yeah."

"Well now that she's back, I thought I'd better go ahead and plan it, especially since her due date is creeping up on us."

"It sure is. What do you need me to do?"

"Just get Alison here. Can you do that?"

"Of course."

"Now listen, I want this to be a surprise, so I told her that I was planning sort of a girl's night out thing. Movies, food, all that good stuff. So just play along, okay?"

"Okay, no problem."

"Just call Alison sometime and make plans to go together. That way you can arrive at the same time and the rest of us will have time to set up the party. It'll be at seven o'clock."

"Sounds good."

"Oh, I got to run. I think I just heard Doc come home. I'll call you later, okay?"

"Bye, Lucy."

"Ta!" Lucy hung up the phone and grinned widely. Things were going just as she planned. Friday night, Alison and Livvie would be in for a surprise.