I crouched under the bushes, stalking a rat. I could see it ahead of me, cleaning crumbs from its whiskers. I tensed myself, poised to spring. Something behind me made a noise, and suddenly the rat was as alert as I was. To make matters worse, the wind shifted, sending my scent straight to the would-be prey. I burst from my hiding place in an attempt to catch the rat, but it was soon gone.

Growling to myself, I turned back to where I'd heard the noise. I could tell it had been a cat, and I grumpily padded over to a nearby dumpster, where I could see a shadow and a pair of eyes hiding behind. I recognized the figure almost instantly.

"Alonzo, get out here."

He emerged slowly and sat in front of me; the expression on his face reminded me of a kitten being scolded.

"Why are you following me?"

"I want to see Cassandra!" Alonzo practically yelled. "It's been almost a month since you two were at the junkyard…" He clamped his mouth shut.

"You're worried about her."

Alonzo nodded. I sighed.

"She's perfectly fine. Didn't you get the—" I stopped and sniffed the air. Something was definitely not right. Without another word, I dashed off towards the den, not caring that Alonzo was right behind me.

I poked my head into the den, blocking the view from Alonzo. "Are you alright?"

"She'll be fine if you come with me."

My fur bristled at the voice. I'd never heard it before, but I could tell the tom it belonged to was one of power and influence. I backed away from the den, stumbling as a tall ginger cat advanced out of the shadows. Alonzo was suddenly hissing and spitting at the tom, who merely sat coolly in the alleyway.

"Who are you?" I asked cautiously. There was a name in my head, but I was too scared to say it out loud.

He laughed manically, sending shivers down my spine. "Oh, I think you know my name. But like I said before, you come with me and I don't hurt that queen or her kitten."

I swallowed and Alonzo froze. This was NOT how I'd planned for him to find out. "Fine." I glared at the ginger tom. He huffed a bit. "Odd. I was expecting more resistance from a Jellicle," He stood and began shoving me along the alley. "If you follow," he called back to Alonzo; he looked ready to kill. "I will kill that queen in the box."

I shot a glance back at Alonzo, who was now leaning in to check on Cassandra. I turned away, not wanting to see his face, and allowed myself to be led away by Macavity.

=^..^=

Alonzo knelt in front of Cassandra, unable to take his eyes off her. She looked well taken care of, and was napping lightly. He swallowed at the sight of her swollen midsection. Was this really what it was all about? Her mood swings, her distance from him? He sat back, content to wait until she woke up.

=^..^=

I sat with my back to the large mirror in the room. No way would I look without a fight. But… why? Why was I being so resistant to looking at my own reflection? I'd been a cat my whole life, so why would seeing myself be so bad? I shook my head. Something inside me told me it was not right to be a cat. And that was just plain weird.

Macavity sat in a large arm chair across the room, watching me. He'd said as soon as we got to his hide-out (not a very good one… just a seldom-used storage room at the back of a grocery store) that he wanted to ruin Deuteronomy's plans. I had no idea what he meant by that, but as soon as a broken mirror was brought into the room, I was against his own plans.

"We can do this the easy way," Macavity said, eyeing me. "Or we can do this the hard way."

I grinned devilishly. "I'm up for a fight." He leapt off his throne and stalked towards me, a hungry look in his eyes. My breath caught in my throat as I realized what he had in mind.

"You creep." I said coldly.

Macavity said nothing, but charged straight at me, ramming me into the mirror and shattering the whole thing.

=^..^=

Cassandra didn't know what she expected to see when she woke up, but she certainly didn't think she'd see Alonzo. His eyes were shut, and his arms were folded across his chest, but Cassandra could tell he wasn't asleep. Being as quiet as possible, she pulled one of the many blankets up over herself and drifted back to sleep.

…

The next time Cassandra opened her eyes, she saw Alonzo sitting in the same position, but with a pair of rats in front of him.

"This isn't really a good reason to go on vacation, Cassandra." He said softly. Cassandra felt her heart nearly rip in two as she saw the love in his eyes. She really didn't want to tell him what happened…

"I… I don't really know where to start…"

Alonzo raised an eyebrow. "The beginning, I suppose. But I didn't think there would be much to explain."

Cassandra ducked her eyes. "There is so much to explain." She whispered. She bit her lip as Alonzo waited for her to start. "A while ago, I went off to have some alone time. You remember that?" Alonzo nodded, and Cassandra drew in a shaky breath before continuing. "I didn't think I'd run into anybody, and for a day or so, it was great. I had so much time to think and just… be. I didn't have to worry about responsibility, or anyone else, and I could focus on just me.

"Well, after about three days, I wanted to go back; but since Jenny promised me a week, I wasn't going to come back early. I came a bit closer to the junkyard, but I stayed out." She swallowed against the lump in her throat; this was the hard part. "Sometimes, it's impossible to stay in control over everything. I never meant to hurt you, Alonzo." Cassandra scrubbed away the tears as they formed. "I don't know what came over me, but when I saw Tugger," her voice broke when she said the name. "I just couldn't stop myself," she was crying now, and praying fervently that she wouldn't have to continue.

Alonzo was numb. She was pregnant with Tugger's kitten? He felt like a hole had been punched in his chest. What to do?

=^..^=

I wiped blood out of my eyes, feeling the sting of the cut on my forehead. When the mirror had broken, one of the shards fell right on top of me, narrowly missing my eye. In the craziness of trying—and failing—to avoid Macavity's attack, I had seen my reflection several times, and now only one name was running through my head. Macavity was now trying to get me to say it out loud.

"You don't want this to happen again, do you?" he said, waving a paw at the trashed room. I scowled at him, but kept my mouth shut. Macavity sighed. "It seems you need a little more persuasion." I closed my eyes, trying to block out the pain of him slamming into me.

[A/N] Ok, so I don't think I meant for this to be so intense… but whatever. That's all for now, folks! I bid you adieu, as I have a week of school and work ahead of me, and probably won't have my computer with me :(

Let me know what you think about this!