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man, I'm gonna tear it down
The kitten is a pitiful mewling thing, scraggly and wet and utterly pathetic as it nestles in Jack's coat. But Jack is looking at it like it's the sweetest thing in the world and Isaac knows in that moment that cat is coming home with them and there is absolutely nothing he can do about it. So when Jack looks up at him with an expression that Isaac interprets as "can we keep him?" Isaac can't say no.
(He's almost right with the interpretation. What Jack was really thinking was "we're taking it home or I'm punching you in the face." He was close enough.)
Isaac sighs, looking at the soaked and freezing kitten and he realizes he wants to see it home save and warm just as much as Jack does. It's a tiny thing, and leaving it tonight would be a death sentence for sure. So he nods. "Fine, we'll keep it." He frowns. "Do you even know how to take care of a cat?"
Jack gives Isaac a Look. He worked on a farm long enough to have learned how to care for animals, thank you very much. And even if he hadn't, Jack figures the house will probably be kind enough to provide books on the subject.
Isaac holds his hands up. "All right, all right, I get the point."
And that is how the cat ended up in the house.
A quick search through the phone book provides the information of a local veterinarian and the visit there finds that though the cat is malnourished and has fleas, it is otherwise relatively healthy. The vet also confirms Jack's analysis of its gender. It's a female. The vet recommends that the cat regain her health before having it spayed and asks what they've named it. Jack and Isaac look at each other a little blankly. Isaac's just been calling it "cat" and Jack doesn't want to admit he's been thinking of it as Little Sister. Isaac response is merely, "we haven't decided yet."
Back at home, as the cat sits on Jack's shoulders (its favorite perch), Isaac throws names out. Jenny, Diane, Alice, and April all get a shake of Jack's head, and Raquel and Beatrice get a frown and a wrinkled nose. When Isaac too casually suggests Ellie, Jack's eyebrows raise and he gives Isaac a look that makes Isaac hold his hands up and retract the suggestion quickly. "Sorry, sorry," he mutters, but it's not that the name makes Jack at all jealous, it's more that he's worried it'll be too much of a reminder for Isaac, for the same reasons that he will never ever suggest Nicole and Jack frowns at Bridget. It's too close to Brigid. It's too much of a reminder.
So Isaac switches to constellations. They're a little better, but Jack dislikes the notion of naming her after a zodiac sign, and many of the others aren't quite right. It's when Isaac suggests "Cassiopeia" that Jack smiles a little, and when Isaac mentions he could call her "Cassie" for short, Jack nods. But he looks questioningly at Isaac. He has to like it, too. Isaac's the only one in the house who will actually use the name, after all. But Isaac's smiling as well, and the matter is settled, and Cassiopeia is named.
She thrives in the house. She rides on Jack's shoulders when she isn't charging around the house or lazing in the sunlight. She invades their space and demands attention and is generally a nuisance, though definitely a loveable one. Whenever Isaac sits down she sits on top of him, purring like a little machine, and he can't bring himself to be mad at her.
She grows quickly, almost too quickly, and it's not too long before she's far bigger than they expected her to be, with gloriously long fur and a face and eyes that look like they belong to a bigger, wilder feline. Isaac and Jack put up with her in the bed right up until one morning when Isaac wakes up gasping, the combined weights of Jack's head and Cassiopeia too much for him. They banish her to a room of her own every night after that, and though she yowls and cries for the first few nights, she soon gets used to it.
Cassie adds a dimension to the house that is strange at first, but not unwelcome. She fills up time and gives new focus to Isaac and Jack, having something to care for aside from each other. She's almost a little therapist in her own right, Isaac decides, after finding Jack lying on the couch with Cassie on his chest, Jack rumbling to her without shame or fear and Cassie meowing and purring right back. And when Isaac starts to feel the ghostly hands and whispering voice of a woman who won't leave him, Cassie loudly demands his attention and the ghost, for the time being, departs.
She pushed her way into their lives, and once there, refused to leave. And that, Jack and Isaac realize, is quite all right by them.
(He's almost right with the interpretation. What Jack was really thinking was "we're taking it home or I'm punching you in the face." He was close enough.)
Isaac sighs, looking at the soaked and freezing kitten and he realizes he wants to see it home save and warm just as much as Jack does. It's a tiny thing, and leaving it tonight would be a death sentence for sure. So he nods. "Fine, we'll keep it." He frowns. "Do you even know how to take care of a cat?"
Jack gives Isaac a Look. He worked on a farm long enough to have learned how to care for animals, thank you very much. And even if he hadn't, Jack figures the house will probably be kind enough to provide books on the subject.
Isaac holds his hands up. "All right, all right, I get the point."
And that is how the cat ended up in the house.
A quick search through the phone book provides the information of a local veterinarian and the visit there finds that though the cat is malnourished and has fleas, it is otherwise relatively healthy. The vet also confirms Jack's analysis of its gender. It's a female. The vet recommends that the cat regain her health before having it spayed and asks what they've named it. Jack and Isaac look at each other a little blankly. Isaac's just been calling it "cat" and Jack doesn't want to admit he's been thinking of it as Little Sister. Isaac response is merely, "we haven't decided yet."
Back at home, as the cat sits on Jack's shoulders (its favorite perch), Isaac throws names out. Jenny, Diane, Alice, and April all get a shake of Jack's head, and Raquel and Beatrice get a frown and a wrinkled nose. When Isaac too casually suggests Ellie, Jack's eyebrows raise and he gives Isaac a look that makes Isaac hold his hands up and retract the suggestion quickly. "Sorry, sorry," he mutters, but it's not that the name makes Jack at all jealous, it's more that he's worried it'll be too much of a reminder for Isaac, for the same reasons that he will never ever suggest Nicole and Jack frowns at Bridget. It's too close to Brigid. It's too much of a reminder.
So Isaac switches to constellations. They're a little better, but Jack dislikes the notion of naming her after a zodiac sign, and many of the others aren't quite right. It's when Isaac suggests "Cassiopeia" that Jack smiles a little, and when Isaac mentions he could call her "Cassie" for short, Jack nods. But he looks questioningly at Isaac. He has to like it, too. Isaac's the only one in the house who will actually use the name, after all. But Isaac's smiling as well, and the matter is settled, and Cassiopeia is named.
She thrives in the house. She rides on Jack's shoulders when she isn't charging around the house or lazing in the sunlight. She invades their space and demands attention and is generally a nuisance, though definitely a loveable one. Whenever Isaac sits down she sits on top of him, purring like a little machine, and he can't bring himself to be mad at her.
She grows quickly, almost too quickly, and it's not too long before she's far bigger than they expected her to be, with gloriously long fur and a face and eyes that look like they belong to a bigger, wilder feline. Isaac and Jack put up with her in the bed right up until one morning when Isaac wakes up gasping, the combined weights of Jack's head and Cassiopeia too much for him. They banish her to a room of her own every night after that, and though she yowls and cries for the first few nights, she soon gets used to it.
Cassie adds a dimension to the house that is strange at first, but not unwelcome. She fills up time and gives new focus to Isaac and Jack, having something to care for aside from each other. She's almost a little therapist in her own right, Isaac decides, after finding Jack lying on the couch with Cassie on his chest, Jack rumbling to her without shame or fear and Cassie meowing and purring right back. And when Isaac starts to feel the ghostly hands and whispering voice of a woman who won't leave him, Cassie loudly demands his attention and the ghost, for the time being, departs.
She pushed her way into their lives, and once there, refused to leave. And that, Jack and Isaac realize, is quite all right by them.