A/N: Well, Don't fear the Reaper was about a year in the making, and it almost never got here due to a hard drive fail midway through, but luckily it was rescued and posted and towards the end I realized I didn't want to shelf Cat and so here we are again!
Edit: Re-uploaded because I forgot FFnet takes out the symbols I use as 'scene breaks' and have to be replaced with lines! (Y)
Rigel stared up at Cat, breathing hard, face streaked with dirt and sweat. The piercing blue eyes were dull now, dieing.
She reached down and closed a fist around the handle of her sword, raised it from the ground above her head with both hands, trained the tip over his heart.
"No clever last words?" Rigel forced out through grit teeth.
"I have nothing to say." Cat told him, and brought her weapon down.
Cold hands closed around her throat and whipped her round. Rigel. Again. Dragging her so close their noses touched. She kicked her feet and grabbed at his hands, sword clattering uselessly to the ground.
"You ruined everything!" He snarled in her face. Cat couldn't breathe and her vision began to go black around the edges. "You couldn't just not follow orders for once in your pathetic life?!" She clawed at his face desperately, straining to suck in the tiniest amount of oxygen. His skin was hard and cold and pale, his eyes milky, dead. "Or just wait your turn to die?!" Cat felt a punch to the gut, felt the sword tear through her-
She woke with a yelp, sitting bolt upright in bed. She felt cold and clammy, her skin wet with a cold sweat. Her heart hammered against her ribs and she gasped for breath. She hunched over and closed her eyes, fingers pushing through damp hair.
Nightmare…
She glanced to her right, keen grey eyes penetrating the gloom of the night to read the luminous green numbers on the face of her alarm clock. She scowled as she saw it was only just after seven a.m. She had been asleep less than an hour, having trudged through the door of her apartment shortly after six, following the graveyard shift at the local hospital working security. Nothing much ever happened, but pay was pretty good.
She flopped backwards and lay staring up at the ceiling of her bedroom, wide awake after having her dreams disturbed by Rigel. Again. The events that had taken place in England the previous month had clearly unsettled her. After all, she had killed plenty of demons, but never a human. If a soul reaper even classed as human any more. She wasn't sure. She should ask Giles for his opinion on that…
Rigel had been a friend. They had lost contact for years, but he had been a friend. And she had killed him. Granted, he had turned into an evil psychopath intent on unleashing Hell on Earth, but still… He hadn't been a demon and she had known him. She had been staring into his eyes as she rammed her sword through his heart. And he had gutted her, which, she supposed, she kind of deserved for killing him.
She turned her head lazily and glanced back over at her alarm clock.
7:12.
She was due at Buffy's place around nine to hang out with Tara and Dawn while Buffy and Willow went off to work. She might as well get up now, it wasn't like she would get any more sleep.
With a sigh, Cat kicked off the bed covers and rolled out of bed. Bare feet hit bare wood and she sat up, yawning widely and stretching her arms above her head to work out some of the stiffness in her muscles from her short and restless sleep. She stood up and went to the window, drawing back the curtains to let the early morning gloom lighten up the bedroom somewhat, peering out at the sky suspiciously. It didn't look like rain, at least. But it would be chilly out.
Pleased with her morning weather report, Cat left her room and entered the bathroom to freshen up with a shower before heading out to the Summers/Rosenberg/Maclay household.
"I woke up and you weren't there." Tara knew without looking her girlfriend's lower lip would be protruding in a good-natured pout. "I missed my morning snuggles." Strong arms wrapped around her stomach in a warm embrace and Willow rested her chin on Tara's shoulder, peering curiously into the sizzling frying pan Tara was stood over, silicone turner at the ready. A mug of tea sat on the counter at her elbow, next to a jug of pancake mixture. Willow smelled jasmine green as the steam curled up from Tara's mug.
"I wanted to make you breakfast." Tara said giving a crooked smile and flipping the pancake in the pan. "Made funny shapes and everything."
"It's a heart!" Willow cried excitedly with a grin.
"Aha. Well. Kind of." Tara said. "I was experimenting."
"I love it." Willow pressed a kiss to her cheek and then bounced off to get herself a glass of orange juice.
Tara pulled out the plate of pancakes she had made for Willow from beneath the grill where they were keeping warm, tipped the latest one onto the plate and brought it over to the island as Willow was sitting down with her orange juice, a bottle of maple syrup and a tub of butter.
"Breakfast is served." Tara said, putting the plate down in front of her with a flourish.
"You're the best!" Willow beamed at her, reaching up for another kiss.
"No smoochin' in ma kitchen." Buffy teased them as she entered the kitchen, dressed in black trousers and a white blouse with her school ID card clipped to her waistband. She had acquired a job with the local high school as a student councillor, using her (little) experience at Sunnydale High to land the job.
"You're just jealous." Willow announced smugly as Tara smiled at Buffy and moved back over to the cooker.
"Yes, I am now gay." Buffy replied, deadpan.
"Pancakes?" Tara offered, lifting the jug of pancake mix. She had made up enough for everyone to have a few for breakfast.
"Ooh! Yes please!" Buffy said, dropping into the chair opposite Willow. "Smells great." She told her red headed friend, hungrily eyeing up the three pancakes on her plate. Willow gave her a suspicious look and put an arm protectively in front of her breakfast.
Tara made a second batch of pancakes and set them down in front of Buffy, who immediately tucked in with a moan of delight.
"Isho good!" She said around a mouthful. Tara flashed a crooked grin and sat beside Willow with her mug of tea, cradling it in both hands.
"Have you eaten?" Willow asked Tara, glancing sideways at her. Tara smiled and nodded.
"I had some toast earlier." She said. "I'll go and get washed and dressed in a bit so I'm ready for when Cat gets here."
"Yeah, getting Dawn out of bed is a two man job." Buffy joked, and then frowned. "Two woman job…?"
"Tara's definitely a woman." Willow said with a smirk. Tara playfully bumped her shoulder against Willow's and raised an eyebrow at her as Buffy looked up at them both.
"You guys should not be allowed at the table."
The doorbell in the Summers household rang right on time. Tara was just leaving the kitchen, drying her hands on a tea towel, when Dawn came thundering down the stairs, tugging on a zip-up hoodie as she did.
"I'll get it!" She cried, skidding to a halt in front of the door and swinging it open wide to reveal a bemused Cat stood on the other side, thumbs hooked into her belt loops.
"Ah, Dawn. I thought an elephant was coming to answer the door." She greeted the teen, who simply grinned and stepped aside for the shorter woman to enter.
"Hi! How are you?" She asked, closing the door behind Cat as the reaper stepped over the threshold, nodding a greeting to Tara who stood behind Dawn.
"Good thanks. You?"
"Brilliant!" Dawn beamed at her. "Tara's agreed we can go to the mall together today!"
"The mall?"
"I'll just go finish washing up…" Tara scooted back into the kitchen.
"Aha! Isn't that great?" Dawn gushed, dragging Cat into the living room to wait for Tara to finish. "We haven't been shopping together in ages."
"Yay…" Cat feigned excitement as she perched on the edge of the sofa. The last shopping trip she had taken with Dawn had resulted in her traipsing after the teen for the best part of a day, lugging bags of shopping that Dawn couldn't carry herself as she had bought half the contents of the building. Or so it had seemed to Cat.
"I'm going to grab my purse, don't leave without me!" Dawn said, and rushed off back upstairs to her bedroom. Tara emerged from the kitchen and stood in the living room doorway. Cat looked up at her, grey eyes playful despite the scowl on her face.
"I hate you."
Tara offered a sloped smile in response and crossed her arms over her chest.
"I'll buy you Oreos if you behave."
"Deal."
The mall was surprisingly busy considering it was a Thursday morning. This had not deterred Dawn at all, who seemed to be an expert at darting between customers and clothes rails and disappearing, leaving Tara and Cat to bumble after her. Cat had already knocked over a display of T-shirts and ran away to leave Tara behind to face the consequences, forfeiting her promised Oreos.
"-I mean, does she really need like a bazillion pairs of jeans? Like…Really?" She demanded of Tara as they trailed behind the teen, a bag of shopping in each hand. Dawn skipped ahead of them, oblivious as she gazed at shop displays, searching for the next bargain.
"No, she doesn't." Tara shook her head, smiling to herself at Cat's grumbling. "But…Excessive shopping is what young girls are meant to do, so, let's let her act normal, yeah?"
Cat scoffed at that.
"I bet you can't wait to start at the library with Giles on Monday, so you can escape stuff like this." She said, gesturing towards Dawn with one bag.
"Well, I'm a bit worried about leaving Dawn alone for nine hours a day. You know how trouble follows her around…" Tara replied warily. Cat instantly felt guilty, glancing up first at Dawn, then sideways at Tara.
"Sorry, I'm just…bored." She frowned and rubbed her stomach as it rumbled loudly. "And kinda hungry…"
"We can stop for food in a bit if you want?" Tara suggested.
"Sure. And, hey, I can hang with Dawn if you want? While you're all at work during the day."
Tara smiled.
"I'm sure Dawn would like that." She said. "And it'd definitely make Buffy feel better, knowing someone was around to keep an eye on her. I know Dawn's almost an adult, but…"
"Like you said. Trouble follows her." Cat nodded in agreement.
In the month they had been back from England she had witnessed first-hand Dawn's capabilities at amassing trouble after the teen knocked over a potion Willow had been brewing and melted one of the kitchen chairs. Just one week after that incident Dawn had, on the way home from work, managed to walk straight into the middle of a vampire turf war. Buffy now insisted on meeting her sister for the walk home, much to Dawn's embarrassment.
They stopped for lunch a short while later (much to Cat's relief) and bought paninis and ice cream (and Cat's promised Oreos despite the display incident), watching the other patrons bustle busily around them until Dawn insisted they visit a couple more shops. Cat and Tara managed to convince her to leave a couple of hours later and they headed back to the Summers' household.
Cat helped Dawn upstairs with her vast collection of bags while Tara went into the kitchen to make them coffee and get started on dinner. Dawn pushed open her bedroom door and entered, dumping her bags on the bed and turning to face Cat with a grin as the reaper followed her in and over to the bed.
"You hate me right now, don't you?" She asked cheerfully.
"Well," Cat began slowly, dropping the bags she carried beside the ones Dawn had put on her bed, "spending all day at the mall isn't my ideal day out." She admitted.
"But you still came, which is pretty cool." Dawn said, emptying the first bag onto her bed and carrying the new clothes over to her wardrobe.
"Yup, that's me." Cat said, watching as Dawn hung up the clothes and went back to the bed, leaving the wardrobe doors open. "Do you even have room for all this?" She gestured to the mound of shopping.
"I'll make room." Dawn replied, admiring a new dress before hanging it up.
"I'm going to go see if Tara wants any help." Cat said, sensing Dawn would be a while. She received a non-committal grunt in response and left the room, leaving the door open.
Downstairs in the kitchen Tara had made three mugs of coffee and left them on the work surface as she rummaged in the fridge for ingredients to make dinner. Cat bounded in and made a B-line for the coffees, peering into them and seeing two with milk, one black. She took the black one and turned to face Tara, leaning back against the counter.
"You put sugar in Dawn's?" She asked, sipping from her mug.
"I did." Tara said, turning away from the fridge with an armful of food and back into the door to close it. She gave Cat a crooked smile, playful. "Don't tell Buffy."
"Hey, you peel Dawn off the ceiling before Buffy gets back and no one needs to know." She said. "What's for dinner?"
"I'm making chilli." Tara said, gesturing to the onions, peppers, and a pack of minced beef next to the stove.
"Ooh, yummy." Cat pushed off from the counter and started across the kitchen to Tara, who was pulling more ingredients out of cupboards and setting them down with the others. "Want help?"
"I'll be okay." Tara shook her head and smiled at Cat. "You go relax. You've had a difficult day." She teased. Cat arched one eyebrow at her.
"And you've been so supportive." She said with a grin. "I'll go relax right over there with the TV." She gestured out into the living room. "Thanks for the coffee by the way." She raised her mug on her way out.
"No problem." Tara said as Cat left the kitchen.
Dawn thundered down the stairs and into the kitchen, dancing past Tara to grab her mug of coffee, and dancing back out of the kitchen into the living room.
"…Police are still searching for missing Ethan Miller, last seen leaving work more than a week ago…"
Cat was sprawled across the sofa idly watching the evening local news, waiting for the next show to come on. She slid upright as she saw Dawn, making room for them both on the sofa.
"I swear someone goes missing every week here." Cat said. Dawn sat on the sofa beside the reaper and curled her legs beneath herself, cradling her coffee mug in both hands.
"It's not that bad!" She grinned.
"I know, I know. I just wish the news would report something happy for once. We get enough doom and gloom with the monthly apocalypse and stuff." Cat said.
"Oh, you don't know the half of it." Dawn rolled her eyes. "Giant snakes, super vamps, Hell dimensions. We've seen it all. Just a normal Tuesday in Sunnydale."
"We're not in Sunnydale anymore."
"Might as well be." Dawn grumbled. "There's no escaping being sister to the Chosen One."
"Chosen many, now." Cat quipped, taking a long sip of hot coffee.
"Which is great, but none of them are here." Dawn said. "You'd think with a world filled with newly awakened slayers a few could be spared to help out around here."
"Ah, but where's the fun in that?" Cat grinned at her.
"You're right. I do so love oiling the weapons and organising the magic cupboard." Dawn deadpanned.
"You forgot 'whittling stakes'." Tara said, entering the room from the kitchen. Dawn wrinkled her nose.
"I was trying to block it from my memory." She said, scooting up so Tara could join them on the sofa. "Dinner smells good."
"I made chilli." Tara said. "And there's more than enough to go round for when Giles and Xander inevitably turn up."
"I like it when Xander visits." Dawn announced, smiling to herself. "He brings doughnuts."
"I'm starting to wonder if I should bring something with me when I come over…" Cat said thoughtfully. "Like…Ice cream…"
"I will love you forever if you do." Dawn told her, deadly serious. Cat pouted at her.
"You mean you don't already?"
"Ice cream or no, you're always welcome here." Tara said, leaning forwards slightly to be seen around Dawn. "I mean, it's not my house, but-"
"It's true." Dawn nodded emphatically.
"I don't think it's really your house either, Dawn…" Cat teased. Dawn fixed her with a faux cool stare, which Cat returned with a mischievous smirk.
Buffy and Willow arrived home from work shortly after six O'clock and called greetings out to Tara, Dawn, and Cat. From the kitchen, Tara heard Buffy's light footsteps dashing up the stairs to the first floor of the house, presumably to her bedroom to change out of her work clothes before dinner.
She checked the oven timer to see how much longer the rice was going to take cooking, then gave her faintly bubbling chilli con carne a stir with the wooden spoon to make sure it wasn't sticking to the bottom of the pan.
She heard footsteps behind her, identifying them immediately as Willow's, heard the rustle of smart black trousers and crisp white shirt that the redhead wore to work, and then strong arms were circling her stomach from behind, squeezing lightly, and a chin was resting on her shoulder.
Tara smiled at the similarity from breakfast earlier that day and released the wooden spoon to place both hands over Willow's on her stomach.
"How was work?" She asked, leaning her head against Willow's.
"I had to debug some guy's laptop after he seriously infected it with porn…"
"That bad, huh?" Tara offered a sloped grin.
"It got better." Willow replied happily, pulling away from her girlfriend. Tara turned to face her and gave her a quick peck on the lips.
"Go change, dinner will be soon." She said. Willow obediently turned around and bounded out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
The oven timer beeped, announcing dinner was ready. Tara turned and pressed the button to acknowledge it, stopping the beeping, and turned off the heat. She was just approaching the sink with a sieve in one hand and the saucepan containing the rice in the other when Dawn entered the kitchen, attracted by the sound of the timer.
"Hey, I'll help plate up." She said. "I think Buffy's going to start chewing on the furniture if we don't get food out quick." Tara raised her eyebrows, tipping the rice into the sieve and shaking it to make sure the excess water drained completely.
"Um, wow, okay…" She said. "Plates are warming under the grill. I still need to cut up some baguettes and there's a tub of grated cheese in the fridge." She dumped the rice back in its saucepan, left the sieve in the washing up bowl and came back over to the oven to return the rice to its hob.
"I will cut bread." Dawn decided finally. She was less likely to cause havoc with that.
Five minutes later a plate of bread and bowl of grated cheese was on the table, and five plates of chilli and rice were ready on the kitchen work surface, steam curling upwards from each, scenting the kitchen with a warm spicy aroma.
Tara grabbed two plates and headed out of the kitchen towards the dining table.
"Okay, guys, dinner's ready, so get-oh…" She stopped as she saw Buffy, Willow and Cat were already sat in their places at the table, clutching their cutlery and watching her expectantly, and raised one amused eyebrow as all three eagerly eyed up the dinner, practically drooling. Buffy was halfway through what looked to be her second piece of bread.
She chuckled to herself and brought over the two plates, placing one in front of Buffy and one in front of Willow.
The doorbell rang then and Dawn streaked passed, yelling, "I'll get it!"
Skidding into the hall, she saw a familiar silhouette through the thick frosted glass panels in the upper half of the front door. She grinned as she opened the door to reveal Xander stood on the front porch, holding in one hand a large box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
He had been glancing out onto the street as he waited for the door to be answered, and turned his head to Dawn as she opened it and offered her a wide smile in greeting.
"Doughnuts!" Dawn cried excitedly, bouncing backwards to give him room to enter. "Come in! Tara's just dishing up dinner. We have chilli."
"Oh, hullo, Xander, nice to see you! How are you? I'm fine thanks, Dawnie, how are you?" Xander said good-naturedly as he stepped over the threshold and handed over his box of sugary delights to Dawn so he could bend down and unlace his heavy steel toe-capped work boots.
Dawn lifted the lid on the doughnuts to see what he had chosen for them. She didn't notice he had stepped out of his boots and hung his jacket on one of the hooks by the door until he had pushed the lid back down and taken the box back.
"They're for after dinner. Which smells great, by the way." He sniffed audibly. "And I don't smell burning. Tara made it, right?" He grinned playfully at her.
"I can cook." Dawn insisted, with only the hint of a whine in her voice. "Come on." She turned and rushed back through the house to the dinner table.
Xander followed her eagerly, trying to walk at a more sedate pace, but the food already had his mouth watering. Tara was just leaving the kitchen with a plate of food in one hand as he entered the dining area. He saw someone had already set a place for him at the table.
"Hi, guys." He called, ducking into the kitchen to put his box on the kitchen counter. He hurried back out to a chorus of hellos (spoken with full mouths) and dropped down into his chair.
"How is everyone?" He asked.
"Same as yesterday." Buffy quipped. "Have fun at the site?"
Xander wordlessly nodded as he hastily chewed on the large mouthful of meat sauce and rice he had just shoved into his mouth. He worked for a construction company currently erecting a block of flats on the edge of town.
"'S going well." He told Buffy. "It doesn't really look like a building yet, but it's going good."
"Will you get mate's rates or anything when it's done?" Cat asked in mock seriousness. "Because my apartment has leaky taps, keeps me up at night."
"What, are you closet OCD now?" Dawn teased. Cat pointed her fork at Dawn.
"Keep it up, kiddo, and I won't come over in the week to help you do housework while the others do real work." She warned playfully. Dawn pouted at her.
"Dawn! You asked Cat to do that?!" Buffy protested.
"Don't call me kiddo, you're not that much older than me!" Dawn carefully ignored her sister.
The doorbell rang once more as the dinner plates were being cleared away. Willow left the bustle in the kitchen as everyone vied to do their bit, going to the front door to answer it. She smiled as she saw who was stood waiting to be let in.
"Giles! Hi!" She said brightly, stepping aside for him.
"Evening, Willow." He responded in kind, entering and wiping his shoes on the inside door mat.
"You're just in time, actually. Xander bought doughnuts."
"Doesn't he always?" Giles asked, closing the door behind himself and raising one hand to show Willow the bunch of papers he held, stapled in one corner to keep them together. "I won't be staying long, I just need to get Tara to sign this ready for Monday. But…I wouldn't say no to a doughnut."
"And a cuppa tea, right?" Cat called out on hearing him. She popped her head around the doorway of the kitchen and grinned.
"Well, I suppose-"
"On it!" Buffy shouted from the kitchen before he could finish. Giles raised one eyebrow and allowed Willow to steer him into the living room. She pushed him onto the sofa and then turned to call over her shoulder.
"Tara! Giles wants you!"
Cat snorted.
"Well, that's a bit forward. Ow!"
"Dawn, don't hit guests." Buffy scolded.
"She's here all the time."
"So not bringing ice cream when I'm next here."
Willow rolled her eyes and headed back into the kitchen, just as Tara exited looking apologetic and rubbing her damp hands dry on a dish cloth, but Giles didn't seem fazed. He was used to the antics of the group by now.
"Hi, Giles." Tara said with a smile, sitting on the sofa beside him. "How can I help?" She lay the dish cloth on the coffee table in front of them, where Giles had set down his papers.
"We forgot to get you to sign this when you came in on Monday." He said, tapping the document. "It's nothing interesting, just induction things, health and safety et cetera, but it needs to be filed ready for when you start."
Tara nodded, looking briefly through the text.
Willow came in holding a tray almost buried beneath three mugs of tea, three plates of doughnuts, and a pen. She set the tray down on the coffee table, and then held out the pen to Tara with a flourish.
"Thanks, Will." Tara said, lips quirking up on one side as she took it from her girlfriend. She turned to the last page and was about to put pen to paper in a signature, when Willow dropped down on the sofa beside her.
"Did you read all the fine print?" The redhead asked.
"I doubt there's a hidden clause about them owning my soul for eternity." Tara teased her, though she paused before signing and looked up at Giles, clearly considering it. "Right…?" Giles smiled at her.
"Not that I'm aware of." He said. "I doubt the Public Library would have much use for souls."
"Can't be too careful in this day and age." Willow said almost haughtily.
"No." Tara agreed with her, bending over the paper and signing her name at the bottom of the page. She added the date, double checked she had done everything she needed to, and then handed over the paperwork to Giles.
"I'm off to work now, guys!" Cat called, waving as she passed through the living room on her way to the front door.
"If you wait a bit I can drive you?" Giles offered. She smiled and shook her head.
"Thanks, but I need to head home first." The opposite direction to Giles' home. "I'll probably be late if I don't go now." She said, going into the hall to pull on her coat and shoes. "I don't mind. You chill out."
"See you tomorrow?" Tara asked.
"Maybe." Cat said. "I'll call. Bye!"
They called goodbye, then the front door clicked shut and Cat was gone.
The light of the day was almost completely gone, just a faint glow on the horizon all that remained. Streetlights hummed and tinted the world orange.
Cat turned up the collar of her duster and stuffed her hands into her pockets as she walked. The air was cool, icy when the wind blew. Which it was doing pretty relentlessly, sending chills down her spine. Trees lined the streets, leaves turning golden as the months turned colder, rattling dryly as the breeze stirred the branches. Some were already falling and rustled as they were pushed along the pavement.
She made it home with plenty of time to spare and changed into her uniform for the hospital (black trousers, dark grey long-sleeved shirt, complete with silver high-vis strips, badge and radio) then stuffed money and a book into her rucksack for break time, pulled her coat and boots back on and slung the rucksack over one shoulder. She did a last minute check for phone and keys and then left the apartment.
Outside night had truly fallen. Cat hurried through the streets towards the hospital, eager to arrive before her shift started so she could leave her bag and coat in the staff locker room and speak with her colleague before they swapped out. She liked to get a heads up on any trouble makers that had been in during the day. Usually the shifts were quiet, but there was always the odd one or two.
As she walked she became aware of a prickling sensation at the back of her neck, crawling up and down her spine. Her subconscious telling her something was up. She reached out with her senses without slowing her pace, keen ears straining for anything that sounded out of place.
There. Behind her. Footsteps. Measured, near silent. Predatory…
Her right hand drifted down to her side, outwards as she prepared to summon her katana from the ether. Magic tingled in her fingertips, waiting to be unleashed.
Quick as that the feeling of being followed was gone. She stopped and turned to face the direction she had heard the footsteps. Thought she had heard. Was she being paranoid? Perhaps her nightmare from that morning still had her on edge. Though, if that were the case, why had her reaper senses reacted to a threat?
Grey eyes scanned the shadows around her but found nothing. Passing it off as definitely of the weird but not necessarily worrying, Cat continued on her walk through the darkened streets of Cleveland, heading for the hospital.