The next day passed with little fanfare. They had fun with the kids and tolerated the people they worked with, they couldn't really ask for much more.

Thursday soon came, bringing with it rain and bad moods. The rain poured down in sheets outside, bringing in wet and muddy kids who quickly became disgruntled with being inside all day and parents who were moody after having to deal with their cranky children on top of their usual morning routine struggles.

The collective patience level continued to drop as the day wore on; there would be an odd fight to break up, a few lectures on saying nice things and how to use manners. They thought that would be the worst of it, but they were wrong. After fighting with several of the kids to take their nap the workers decided pizza might be a good (and easy) way to please the kids.

They designated Tim and Arizona to make the trek through the rain to the pizza place a street over and neither minded the excuse to get out. They didn't particularly want to be wet or cold, but both of them enjoyed the peace that rain brought, and they knew that if they cut through the ally and parking lot they would be there in no time.

In true Robbins fashion they raced from the entrance of the daycare, and through the ally and back parking lot of the pizza place, jumping in puddles or trying to shove the other into puddles…it really didn't matter, they were both soaked to the bone by the time they got there.

They ordered their pizzas, sitting at a table and doodling on some napkins until their order was ready. They made better use of their umbrellas for the trip back, knowing that they would be moving a lot slower and that no one would be happy if they came back with boxes of soggy pizza.

"Did you hear that?"

Arizona's face screwed up in confusion as she stopped mid stride to listen.

"Hear what? All the starving children waiting for their delicious pizza?"

Tim smirked and stopped as well.

"Ha ha. Shut up and listen…"

They both stood there with the rain falling down around them, staring at the ground with their ears straining to hear whatever it was again.

"Zona, come – "

"Shhhhh!"

Meew…mew…mreow

Two blonde heads snapped in the direction of the dumpster where a box seemed like it was moving. They shared a look before going over to the box and debating on whether or not to lift the lid. They knew it couldn't be anything that dangerous…but there was still a chance of some sort of disease, and they knew if it was what they suspected, a kitten, that they would be in trouble; they had a hard enough time not bringing home animals from the pet store or their work at the animal shelter, and there they knew that the animals had shelter and food.

Arizona placed her pizza boxes on top of the ones in Tim's arms and they slowly moved a bit closer to the box to block out the rain while Arizona lifted the lid, ready to fall back if it came out claws swinging.

What greeted them threw them for a loop. It wasn't clear whether the mouths dropped open first or their faces screwed up in disgust first. Looking down they saw a tiny little black and white kitten climbing all over a little ginger kitten, clearly trying to start a fight. They barely looked old enough to have been weaned from their mother and from the looks of the box they had been there for at least the better part of the day; it was gross.

Two sets of blue eyes scanned the nearby dumpster and area around them. Spotting a cleaner box, Arizona hopped up to grab it and transferred the kittens and got up, box in her arms and they once again started making their way back to the daycare.

"Mom's going to kill us." Tim flatly stated; it wasn't going to change their minds about bringing them home. Arizona just shrugged.

"So will everyone at work…we can't just leave them in the car for the rest of the afternoon."

They both just shrugged; it wasn't like anyone there could get in a much worse mood anyway.

x-x

The pulled open the doors to the daycare to be greeted by the quizzical expression of one of the other workers, Jo.

"Hey guys…" she narrowed her eyes at the two "I know we sent you for the pizza, but not…" she tilted her head and squinted trying to make out what the box said "…a box of Listerine?"

She received two sheepish smiles; the two knew that she was one of those girls who often fell under the spell of their dimples and they were hoping it would be enough to get them off the hook, or at least provide them with a timeframe to figure out their angle to work the whole kitten thing.

Unfortunately they didn't get enough time as the contents of the mystery box started meowing.

Jo's eyes bugged out as her jaw dropped "You didn't…"

The Robbins' tried to look as innocent as possible but they knew it was a lost cause now. They opted for just showing off the cute little bundles of fur instead. "Aren't they cute?!"

She just sighed "They are…what are their names?"

"Ham and Cheese." They grinned as they both spoke.

Jo shot them a confused look as she let the kittens play with her hand "…but you guys don't even like sandwiches…"

"Good thing we're not making a kitten sandwich then, eh?" Tim playfully shot back while Arizona giggled, earning them a roll of Jo's eyes as she made her way back over to the desk.

"Whatever. You guys are sooo in shit for this."

But they weren't. wasn't in today, like usual. They received a few disapproving headshakes from one of the middle aged workers, and several eye rolls, but the kids loved them even more for bringing kittens in.

The afternoon passed by much faster with the kittens as a distraction for the kids; when the kids were happier, the workers were happier.

A few of the parents had called to say they would be running a little late due to the weather, and Tim and Arizona were voted to be the ones to stay because of their 'kitten stunt'; one particularly crabby worker had even promised that it would become 'KittyGate 2013' if Stark were to find out.

So the two blondes sat on the floor in the front with two kittens and a handful of kids scattered around them. One of the little boys asked why they chose Ham and Cheese as the names, so the kids sat in a small circle while Tim and Arizona told them a few stories about them growing up and how their Nana had always called them Ham and Cheese because they were inseparable, and thus they decided to pass on the names. That seemed to please most curiosities and served to lead them into a storytelling session with the kids talking/complaining about their own siblings and grandparents which kept on while the number of kids in the small group slowly decreased.

Derek Shepherd was expected to be the last to arrive, and he was. When Arizona and Tim had first started working at the daycare they had wondered why Zola was coming here when Derek and Meredith both worked at the hospital, which had its own daycare. They made the mistake of asking an intern who had been charged with dropping Zola off one afternoon and sat and listened to a dreadfully long tale of gossip about a lot of people they didn't know at the hospital and all they managed to gather was that there was some sort of an incident and that this place had more flexible hours.

By 7pm they decided they would try calling either of the Shepherds to see what was going on, but all they found out was that they were both in surgery. Normally if that happened they would send someone to pick Zola up for them, but they hadn't today so they had assumed it was an 'all hands on deck situation' because of the weather and just reheated some of the pizza from earlier so they could all eat dinner, sharing the meaty bits with the kittens to hopefully tide them over until they could get some cat food. (Luckily for the litter box they had just stolen some sand from the sandbox and used an old box from the supply closet.)

When Derek and Meredith finally rushed through the door at 10pm, babbling their reasoning for being late, they looked around wondering why it was so quiet. Looking over the front desk they smiled, seeing Tim and Arizona sleeping while leaning back against the wall, Zola securely between them with two kittens draped over her little legs and an empty pizza box beside them.

Meredith's squeeing and the flash from the hundredth photo she took with her iphone finally woke them, the three groggily looked around, the obviously didn't remember falling asleep there.

"Sorry guys…" Meredith smiled

"Kittens, huh?" Derek just smirked looking down at the three; Mer always did say that Zola always came home with the most interesting stories when both Robbins were working…