Title: Ryan's Cat

Summary: Ryan finds a kindred soul.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the cat.

Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews. Much appreciated!

Chapter 3

Kirsten came home from work a little early. She went looking for who was home and found Seth playing video games. He looked up when she walked in from the kitchen. "Hey."

"Hey. Are you hungry? I thought I'd order from La Rocca's."

Seth nodded. "Yeah, sounds good. Hey, listen, Ryan's got someone in the pool house you should see. He's got the doors locked, so..."

Kirsten was intrigued. "Yeah? Who is it? A new girl?"

Seth smiled. "You'll see."

Kirsten was even more intrigued. She headed out to the pool house. She saw that all the shades were pulled down, too. She hoped that Ryan hadn't gotten back together with Marissa. Marissa was a nice enough girl, she supposed, but she was unstable, and Ryan spent an awful lot of his time and energy "rescuing" her from all the fixes she got herself -- and Ryan -- into. Kirsten hoped that if Ryan had a girl in the pool house, that it was someone new, someone who was stable and could support Ryan instead of pulling him down.

Kirsten knocked on the pool house door and called out, "Ryan?"

Ryan called back, "Just a second. The door's locked."

Ryan glanced over at the clock and was surprised to see that half an hour had gone by while he was laying there with Cat laying on top of him. She had hardly moved in all that time. She was still laying from his stomach to his chest, with her paws tucked under and her eyes closed. She had stopped purring some time back, and looked like she was pretty much out of it, completely relaxed. Ryan still had his hand resting on her back, from when he had been stroking her back earlier.

Well, now he had no choice but to disturb Cat. And he was going to have to stay up late tonight to finish his homework. He gently put both hands under Cat's stomach behind her front legs and lifted her up and off to his right side, setting her down on her feet on the bed. She looked a little confused by being woken up so suddenly. Ryan started scratching her around the ears, the way she liked it. Cat sat down, and really got into it.

When it looked to Ryan like Cat wasn't going anywhere, he got up and walked over to the door.

Kirsten stepped back a little when Ryan unlocked the door. She wasn't very surprised when he came out and shut the door behind him, instead of inviting her in. She said, "Seth said you had someone in the pool house."

Ryan glanced over to the kitchen and saw Seth standing there just inside the doorway, looking smug. Ryan guessed that Seth didn't tell Kirsten the nature of the someone who was in the pool house.

"Um, yeah, um, it's a cat."

"A cat?"

"Yeah, she was here when I came home today. Come on in, but she's a little shy, so..." Ryan opened the door, let Kirsten go in first, then closed the door behind them, like he did with Seth.

Kirsten saw a stray cat crouching on the bed, looking like she was about to run off. She watched Ryan walk over to the cat, sit down on the bed next to her, and start petting her with long, soothing strokes down her back. The cat seemed to relax a little.

Ryan expected Kirsten to do what Seth did and stay by the door, but instead she did something similar to what Ryan had done earlier. She walked slowly towards the bed. Cat kept an eye on her, but didn't run. When Kirsten got close enough, she sat down on the bed next to Ryan and reached out to Cat carefully. When Cat didn't move away, Kirsten reached a little further and stroked Cat on the top of the head. Cat looked like she liked it.

Kirsten said, "Did you know I had a cat when I was little?"

Ryan was surprised -- he hadn't thought of any of the Cohens with pets, since they didn't have any now. "No, I didn't."

"He was a pedigreed Siamese cat, with papers and everything. Very fancy." Kirsten smiled. Ryan smiled back.

Kirsten continued, "He had some long name like His Royal Highness the Prince of China, but we just called him Prince. Do you have a name for this one yet?"

"I'm calling her Cat." Ryan waited for Kirsten to make a comment like Seth did, but she just nodded.

Cat started to move, catching the attention of Ryan and Kirsten. They both looked down at her and watched as she tucked her front paws under, going from crouching to lying down. Ryan reached over and scratched her under the chin. She closed her eyes.

Kirsten looked back up at Ryan. "Have you had a cat before?" Ryan looked at her and shook his head. Kirsten asked, "I suppose you want to keep her?"

"Is that OK?"

"It's OK with me, but we'll have to convince Sandy. He doesn't like cats." Ryan looked concerned, so Kirsten continued, "Don't worry, I'll talk to him."

"Thanks." Ryan gave her a half-smile.

"You know, taking in a stray cat, that's the sort of thing my mom would have done. If my dad had let her, that is."

Ryan wasn't sure what to say to that, so he just nodded and said, "Can I borrow the car? I need to buy cat food and --"

Kirsten interrupted, "Yes, of course. I was going to order dinner from La Rocca's which as you know takes forever, so you should have plenty of time to go out before it gets here. Tell you what, I'll make you a list of what you'll need."

Ryan again just smiled and said, "Thanks."

"Well, I should go order dinner." Kirsten gave Cat a few strokes on the top of her head one last time, smiled at Ryan, and headed for the door.

Ryan stayed on the bed with Cat. He picked up his homework to see if he could get some done before he went shopping. He decided not to lock the door this time, since Seth and Kirsten already knew about Cat, and one of them would tell Sandy.

When Kirsten got back inside the kitchen, she found that Sandy was already home. "Hey, you're home early." She said, and kissed him on the cheek.

"You too."

"Did Seth tell you about Ryan's new friend?"

"I haven't talked to Seth. He must be upstairs." Sandy looked out at the pool house and saw all the shades down. "A girl?"

Kirsten laughed. "That's what I thought. No, it's a cat. Ryan found a stray cat."

Sandy frowned and glanced back out at the pool house. "A stray cat?"

Kirsten said quickly, "Sandy, I know you don't like cats, but --"

Sandy interrupted, "You're right, I don't. Vile, evil creatures. The way they look at you... Especially the strays. You don't know what they've been through or what damage it has done to them. They can be sweet one second and attacking you with their claws the next..."

"Sandy, I think this would be really good for Ryan. I worry about him, spending a lot of his time alone out there in the pool house. A cat would keep him company."

Sandy looked at Kirsten for a moment, considering. She looked like she was determined. He sighed and said, "It stays in the pool house. I don't want it in here."

Kirsten nodded. "Of course. She'd be Ryan's cat. And we can take anything out of the pool house that you don't want damaged."

Sandy grunted, not really happy with this, but going along for Kirsten.

Sandy decided he wanted to see this stray cat, so he headed out to the pool house. He knocked a couple of times, then went ahead in, without waiting for an answer, the way he usually did. He saw Ryan on the bed, doing his homework.

The cat took one look at Sandy and quickly headed off the far side of the bed. Sandy closed the door immediately. He wouldn't mind if the cat ran out and disappeared, but he knew Ryan would.

Ryan looked at Sandy and said, "You scared Cat!"

Sandy watched Ryan crawl over to the far side of the bed, and drop down to the floor, and look under the bed. Sandy came over to the near side of the bed, and also went down onto the floor and looked under the bed. He wanted to get a better look at this cat. It was crouching near the center of the bed, looking away from Sandy, towards Ryan. It had its ears halfway back. Sandy saw Ryan stretch his hand out under the bed towards the cat.

Sandy quickly said, "Don't! It could rip your hand to shreds."

"She wouldn't."

"You don't know what it would do. It's scared, like you said. See its ears?"

Ryan reluctantly withdrew his hand. He hated to admit it, but Sandy might be right. He saw Sandy stand up, and with one last look at Cat, he stood up as well.

Sandy said, "I talked to Kirsten. She seems to think this cat is a good idea. I'm willing to go along with it -- for now. We'll discuss this more over dinner, OK?"

"OK. Thanks." Ryan smiled. Sandy just grunted, and headed out the door.

After Sandy left, Ryan went back down on the floor and looked back under the bed at Cat. She was still crouching in the same spot, but her ears weren't back any more. She turned her head towards Ryan when he started talking to her. He wanted to get her out from under the bed. He tried coaxing her by talking to her and reaching in -- not too close -- with his hand.

She didn't move except to blink her eyes, flick her ears, and turn her head away from Ryan. After a while, she tucked her paws under, like before, going from crouching to lying down. At this point, Ryan knew she wasn't planning on going anywhere anytime soon. He figured she'd be OK staying there while he went shopping, and gave up trying to get her to come out. He got dressed to go out and headed for the house.

Ryan entered the kitchen and found Kirsten sitting at the counter. She looked over at him, and handed him a piece of paper, saying, "Here's the list of cat supplies."

Ryan looked at it and saw about a dozen things listed. "Do I really need all this stuff?"

"You don't need everything right away, just the items above the line. Basically the food related items, the litter box related items, and the pet carrier."

"Pet carrier?"

"To take Cat to the vet."

"Right, OK."

Kirsten handed him some money. Ryan counted it. "A hundred dollars? Do I really need this much?"

"Probably not, but keep it for future expenses. And also, I'll raise your allowance to cover the costs of the cat."

Ryan chuckled. Kirsten looked at him, puzzled. Ryan explained, "You're pretty much giving Cat her own allowance."

Kirsten chuckled too. "Yeah, I guess I am."

Ryan, as usual, was uncomfortable taking money from Kirsten. "Look, I'll pay you back. If I could get a job --"

Kirsten interrupted him. "Ryan, you know how Sandy and I feel about you having a job during the school year. Just take the money. For Cat."

Ryan sighed. He didn't want Cat to go without just because of him. "OK."

Kirsten smiled at Ryan and said, "I've ordered dinner from La Rocca's. It should be here in a little less than an hour, so you should get going."

Ryan smiled back at Kirsten, took the keys from the counter, and headed out.

45 minutes later, Ryan returned from his cat shopping. He parked the Range Rover in front of the front door and came in, leaving the front door open.

Sandy saw him come in and said, "Hey, welcome home. Did you get everything you needed?"

Ryan gave him a little smile and answered, "Yeah, I think so."

Ryan walked across the living room to the French doors and opened one of them. He then proceeded to make several trips from the Range Rover, through the living room, and to just outside the pool house, to carry everything out there. Then he pulled the Range Rover into the garage and headed out to the pool house, closing the doors as he went.

When Ryan got to the pool house, he carefully opened the door to check on where Cat was, and if she had been OK by herself while he was gone. She was curled up on the bed, peacefully sleeping. Obviously, she had recovered from her scare from when Sandy had come in.

Ryan quickly moved all of the supplies to just inside the door. Ryan saw Cat pick up her head and look over at him as he moved the bag with the canned and dry food in it. He figured she heard the sound of the dry cat food moving around inside the bag. So as soon as everything was inside and the door safely closed, Ryan picked up that bag and carried it over to the kitchen area.

He looked over at Cat. She was still watching him. He shook the bag to make the dry food make noise, saying to Cat, "Dinner's here."

Cat jumped down from the bed and followed him eagerly into the kitchen. Ryan opened one of the cans of cat food and put half of it down in the bowl he had used earlier for the tuna. Cat rushed right over and started in on it.

Ryan carried the litter box and the bag of kitty litter into the bathroom. Ryan hoped that Cat knew how to use it. Just as he was finishing filling up the litter box, he heard Kirsten call out, "Ryan, dinner's here!"

Ryan called back, "Be right there!"

Before Ryan headed into the house for his dinner, he walked over to where Cat was still eating her own dinner. He squatted down next to her and reached out and stroked her head and down her back. Cat looked up at Ryan. He scratched her under her chin a little, and said softly,

"Welcome home, Cat."