Chapter Text
The little thing had been sitting in the opening of an alleyway, just screaming his little head off at anyone who passed him by.
That was the first thing that clued Robby in that he needed help.
The second thing was that it was a kitten. Small, maybe the size of a hand. No mommy anywhere in sight, a lone kitten sitting near a puddle with his little tail curled around his paws, screaming in desperation at anyone that passed him.
This was a kitten that knew its parent wasn’t around to help him, and was actively looking for human help.
Robby; a man known for his reluctance to even entertain the idea of a pet, much less get one, and a husband who isn’t swayed either way, looked at that little thing in the alleyway entrance and just broke. Even if he never kept them, he was incapable of not wanting to love and care for something so little.
He kneeled next to the tiny yelling kit on the ground, and held out a hand to him. “Oh, sweetness, hello.”
The kitten, much different from the skittish thing he expected, immediately came to snuffle at his hand in desperation. Poor kitten. He was probably missing his mommy. Maybe he’d been separated. He could ask around at the apartment they stood near to see if anyone lost a kit, but it was important to take him in how. Robby wasn’t sure how long he’d been away from his momma, but he was skinny and nervous, but not quite skittish of humans.
Robby scooped a hand under his little body, his other hand coming to gently scruff him; soft enough to comfort and not hurt, but hard enough they the kitten wouldn’t try to back out of Robby’s hold.
He lifted them up to eye level, looking into big blue-grey eyes, and fell in love a little, remembering why he refused to ever get a pet. Because… it hurt that they didn’t last as long as a human. And it hurt even more that Robby was a doctor so it felt like one more failure, even if it actually wasn’t, it felt like a failure… to not keep them going as long as a human.
He felt all that in a painful sharp ache in his belly; and blinked back at the little thing, still instantly in love anyways. Because they were just too cute, too pathetic, too needy. Too much of what Robby wanted in a little creature to love.
Dana loved cats. So did Adamson. Robby would just get them a bit more healthy, put some good kitten fat on them, and hand them over. Robby wasn’t going to sacrifice his sanity for a baby cat. He already had too much of his life taken away.
Robby checked the area carefully for a good three minutes, sad when he couldn’t find any traces of the momma kitty, and sighed, deciding this little one would have to be a lone kitten for a bit. He cuddled the little kit into his neck and collarbone. Necks and collarbones, in his experience, were warm areas, and with a big hand over the curled rump of the thankful kitten, he would be well warmed, if nothing else, before they got to his place.
***
Jack found his husband in the kitchen five hours later with an orange blonde kitten in his hands, trying to coax the little thing into drinking more kitten formula. Jack blinked a few time, looking around the room carefully. Everything seemed normal, so he was probably awake. Awake and tired and ready for his next shift in three hours. But awake, nonetheless. He shifted on his arm crutch, looking into the kitchen with interest. He’d wondered why Robby hadn’t been in bed when he woke up.
“…where did you get that one?”
Robby startled, looking at him with wide eyes and a nervous frown. “Found him in an alleyway, screaming for attention at anyone who passed by.”
Yeah. That made sense. Robby would be up for days thinking about if someone helped the kitten if he hadn’t been the one to. It’s how that always started. He sighed softly, coming over to gently wrap his arm around the bigger man, giving a kiss to his shoulder and peering over at the little cat.
“I think he’s had enough formula, brother. He probably can’t hold that much inside. Too little.”
Robby was unfortunately aware of that, considering this was the second time today that the formula had bubbled out the kitten’s nose. “Yup. I didn’t actually give him that much, the formula cup is at that level because this is his third feeding. I think he’s getting a little kitten fever. Do cats get acid reflux this little? I don’t think he’s had enough for him to be full this fast.”
Jack frowned. “Have you had him for the past five hours?”
Robby nodded, finishing wiping the little thing up, and gently setting him on a little tea towel on the counter. He looked around with big blinks, and let out a yawn so big he stumbled over. Jack and Robby both cooed at that. “Walked home, found a kitten, stopped by the pet supply store to get him a shifter-mark scan, that came up negative, looked for basic kitten supplies. He’s on the edge of a kitten that should be accepting solids now, but he just doesn’t seem that interested. Bathtime was less stressful than I thought it’d be, but he seemed to relax when I put down a towel for him to stand on. Then we had a nap, one more feeding, and a second nap.” That explained why Robby looked mused and exhausted like he’d had a full night sleep, instead of barely two naps. Probably had one hand on the kitten both times.
Jack moved to supervise the little one on the counter while Robby cleaned up the formula and resealed a can of kitten food that he’d probably tried to tempt the kitten with before. Jack hummed as he ran a finger through that soft fur. “Blonde curly fur, blue eyes that look more than baby blues, brother, you found a rare one.”
Robby snorted. “I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen a cat with curly fur in person before now. Took me a minute to realize the fur wasn’t drying weird, he just has curls.”
Jack hummed, straightening a bit so he could lift the kitten off the counter, holding him against his warm collarbone. Robby turned around, soft eyes melting when he realized him and his husband had done the same thing. “I’m going to have to take him to the vet. I’m worried about how long he was in the cold without anything to eat, plus, I genuinely don’t think I gave him enough formula to bubble up. That’s why I think he’s getting a baby fever.”
Jack nodded, gently scritching through his fur. “And then foster for a few weeks, maybe a month or two to get him to size? I think Journey was considering getting his girlfriend a dog, which is the worst idea ever, I once saw that girl flinch at a puppy- but cats can be more independent, long as he can wait for this one to grow a bit.” He lifted up the kitten to look him in the eyes. “And maybe we can figure out if your icky tummy is why you don’t want solids yet?” The kitten looked at him with sleepy blinks and yell-meowed. Jack nodded in approval. “Fair enough. I’ve had some rough nights, myself.”
Honestly, it wouldn’t be their first time fostering a kitten or puppy. They always managed to find someone who’d want one. One of their foster dogs had been handed over to a therapist for training, and they still got an enthusiastic greeting from the professional and grown up therapy dog when he was in the hospital. He was such a good boy. There was also a smattering of rescue squirrels and raccoons they’d had to find humans to relocate them to. Those ones usually got placed with raccoon or rodent shifters, since it was always helpful to teach those animals how to thrive after they’d be released.
But Robby and Jack had never been one to walk past a creature in need, even if it wasn’t human. The two of them needed someone to take care of, even if they could never give a pet their full attention, or suffer the grief of their loss on top of the grief of patients. They had been suggested to get on the adoption list for kids, but had only succeeded in qualifying for foster care, entirely on a fluke because of their schedules being so conflicting.
Even Kiara had said that was odd, considering their schedules could be fixed, subtly suggesting that maybe it was because of a same-sex couple, but they’d given her a half hearted no when she offered to refile for them with a different case worker.
Sometimes holding onto a hope hurt just a little bit more. Sometimes they just couldn’t bring themselves to fight for something that wasn’t something they needed so desperately.
Maybe the ache for fatherhood would come later, and they’d regret it, but it wasn’t here yet.
And Robby and Jack could never walk past a crying creature in need.
“You showered yet, brother?”
Robby hummed, holding back a yawn, and Jack felt his insides melt. Just two husbands and a little creature made of fluff, it almost felt perfect. “Not yet. Kept worrying I’d disappear for a bit and find him missing.”
Ahh, yes, the sleepy parental hindbrain. They both knew it well. Jack nodded, picking up the basket that Robby had apparently been using as a kitten bed for now, and putting it on the counter in view of where Jack liked to set up his cooking prep. “You go do that, I’ll come with you two to the vet, and then you can drop me off at work after. Then you need to concede to using a playpen and getting some rest yourself.”
Robby grumbled, but came up to wrap his arms around the man’s waist, nuzzling into him for a few soft moments. He kissed Jack on the cheek, and left. “Thanks.”
“Always, brother.”
Robby was gone for a full minute when the kitten looked up at him, quickly getting over his milk-drunk haze by din of both age and not having actually had much, and gave another little yell-meow.
“Oh really?” Jack pulled out ingredients for omelettes and turkey bacon, no cheese for Robby since he kept fairly kosher outside of the hospital, more of a habit from childhood than anything. He liked bell peppers in his omelettes though, so they Jack always made turkey bacon with it.
The kitten meowed again, sitting up to his tail was tucked around his front paws, and blinking sleepy eyes at him. Jack wondered if he could see properly. Probably not, since he was a bit young. His vision would still be a bit fuzzy. Jack kept up that little conversation with him while he chopped ingredients, his stump below his right knee resting on a cushioned stool that Jack kept in the kitchen for this exact purpose, lovingly cut to size by Robby for him when they first got together. He could sit at the counter to prepare, but he was right between the stove, a good section of counter, and the sink on his other side, the basket closer to the sink than the stove as Jack chopped and got a pan ready for the turkey bacon. It was just well placed to prep and cook at the same time.
He moved around like that without issue, only using his crutch to put the bacon in the toaster oven and coming back; it was a setup he’d had down for years now. The kitten followed him with his eyes, and Jack had the feeling of being inspected, but it was probably because the kitten wasn’t old enough to see that well. When he came back he gave the kitten a gentle kiss to his little head, not wanting to have to wash his hands until he finished cutting the peppers. “Hey, bubbas, do you think you can eat a little bit of egg if I give you some? I’ll make a little bit plain for you to see. Maybe you just didn’t like the kitten food that Robby got you.”
The kitten mewed back at him, and Jack nodded along, giving more soft conversation to the sleepy kitten. “Aww, come on bubbas, you can take a little nap for me, huh? Or maybe me cooking is too exciting. All those smells in the air. But those sleepy blinks tell me you want to. You can lay down, bubbas.”
But the little thing sure was stubborn. He set aside the little bit of plain egg with no seasonings or fillings to the side while he worked on his and Robby’s breakfast, hoping the kitten would maybe at least show interest. Either in the egg or some turkey bacon.
Robby came back just in time for Jack to finish up his own omelette, moving to put their plates at the counter and pull out the bacon. “He do good?”
“Yeah. Very chatty, very stubborn. You can see he desperately wants a nap, but I guess there’s too many interesting smells around. Made him a little bit of egg, maybe he’ll eat that.”
Robby pressed a kiss to Jack’s cheek, leaving him to clean up his very controlled mess in the way that Jack preferred Robby leave him to. Jack noticed the way little kitten eyes watched them as whenever they were near, but he was probably just interested in the big man who saved him coming back.
Robby picked up the basket again, carrying it over to the kitchen island to sit him in the space above Jack and Robby’s places, in between them. He put the little plate of egg down in front of the kitten, and broke up a little bit of the turkey bacon to put on his little plate. The kitten looked at it curiously, but didn’t move from his spot.
Actually, the kitten seemed a bit unnaturally still, like he’d just stay wherever they put him, and it was a bit worrisome, but Robby couldn’t put a finger on why. “Hey, buddy, you want some of this?” He lifted the little plate and put it on the cushion in the basket next to the kit, looking at Jack as he shifted his crutch to the side and slid into place next to Robby. “Did he move any while I was gone?”
Jack hummed, shaking his head. “I think he’s just tired, brother.”
Robby sighed, nodding. “Yeah.” He held up a little bit of egg to the kitten, who sniffed it carefully, before eagerly taking it off of Robby’s fingers. “Oh, poor thing, so exhausted he needed to be handfed.”
They were relieved to see that once the kitten had a bite, he eagerly helped himself to the plate of egg. Just a little bit of egg and turkey bacon, but easily a feast for someone so small. Robby breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness for that.”
The kitten made happy little noises around his food, and Robby tangled one ankle around Jack’s, relaxing a bit now that he knew the kitten just didn’t like the kitten food Robby had got him. Jack’s cheeks turned a little pink, and he leaned into the touch, the two of them enjoying their meal.
***
Robby had tried to be firm as he put the kitten in the carrier, but Jack had caved and told him to hand the little thing over. Robby unzipped the carrier holding the kitten, pulling the crying baby out, and handed him to his husband in the front seat, where the kitten promptly tried to burrow into Jack’s jacket collar, letting out the most pitiful little mews.
When Robby came back around to the drivers seat, he found Jack practically drowning the kitten in soft kisses and scritches, cooing about how the evil carrier had swallowed him all up. Robby snorted. “God forbid we have kids, they would be so spoiled.”
Jack smirked at him. “You say spoiled, I’d say they’d want for nothing. Even Papa’s attention, isn’t that right-“ he lifted the kitten up and pressed a big kiss into the kitten’s chest, making them squirm and mewl, but so much less distress in that tone now. Good.
Jack settled back again, curling the boy softly against his jacket. Robby was pretty sure that was originally his jacket, but he would never complain about his beautiful husband in his clothes. Jack kept petting him, even as he and Robby talked about yesterday’s shift, what Jack was expecting for today, and everything else they’d need to do while fostering for a few weeks. If worst case scenario hits, they could always trust a couple of the pediatrics shifter-nurses to be able to hide a tiny animal against ER policy, which was both amusing and something Adamson pretended not to notice.
Robby pulled into the lot of what wasn’t their usual vet to go to, but the one that had the soonest appointment, simply because of their time crunch to get Jack to work plus Robby’s worry about how warm the kitten was. Better to just get it over with now and let Robby sleep finally.
Jack happened to be a bit busy placating the nervous creature in his arms, so he simply gave a grinning Robby a side-eye when he opened the door for him. “Yes, Makel, may I help you?”
Robby shrugged. “And they say chivalry is dead.”
Jack snorted, getting out of the car without losing a hold of the mewling creature in his hand. “It’s never been dead, just a little useless with us these days.”
Robby shut the door after him, grabbing the cat carrier from the backseat. “What can I say, you take too long, you get princess treatment.”
Jack grumbled about that, following Robby into the building, entirely because that was his joke to make. He liked to dote on his husband. Robby made jokes that he couldn’t be the papa because the daddy has to be the softer one, in his opinion. They both knew damn well who the softie in their relationship was, and it always rankled on Jack a little when Robby got the upper hand for coddling.
But he still felt warm and loved inside, so he didn’t do more than grumble. He scratched his fingers gently through soft fur as they entered the building, noting the way his little purr started to stutter-stop. Must smell so sterile in here to a little kitten nose. Jack gently rubbed along the beans of one paw, making a soothing noise. “You’re okay, cub.”
He made a move towards the waiting area while Robby went for the front desk, speaking quietly to the woman behind it and handling their forms. He watched his exhausted husband pick up the clipboard and wander back to lean into Jack’s right arm while he filled them out. “Oh, you are going to take an amazing nap. You will set up the playpen for our little buddy, set your phone on silent, and sleep good-“
Robby sighed, looking back at him with a roll of his eyes. “-and wake up ever two hours to feed him-“
Jack shrugged, planning to take tomorrow off so his husband would catch back up with sleep overnight. He pressed a kiss to the man’s head and let him fill out the paperwork for them.
Robby had just fallen into a light doze on Jack’s shoulder when the secretary came out from behind the desk. “Misters- oh my apologies, Doctors Robinavitch and Abbot?”
Jack felt unreasonably pleased that she caught her own mistake, but Robby still startled at their names, getting up with a little groan. Oh, Jack was thinking about taking the day off just so he could put his husband down for a nap. He’d probably have to talk himself out of it, actually.
They ended up back in an exam room, waiting for a vet tech to come in and check on the cub they had found. Jack had set the little guy on the table, and he seemed to be pacing it nervously, looking over the edge towards the ground and backing up again a few times. Jack frowned, but before he could scoop the cub up again, the door opened.
A young black woman with short hair and dark eyes came in, giving them both a small smile as she came to the other side of the table. “Hello, Doctors, my name Heather Collins, I’ll be checking on your little one today. I noticed no name on the form, do we have one for the little man?”
She ran lovely fingers over the kitten’s little head, scrubbing gently at his tiny ears.
“Not yet, no, I just found him today on my way home from work. Waited til my husband was up for his shift to get here.” Robby leaned against the counter on the other side of the room, looking, to people who weren’t Jack: uncomfortable. To Jack, he just looked exhausted. “Dropped by a pet store on the way back and used their scanner and got him formula and kitten food. He wasn’t very interested in much til Jack gave him some egg an hour ago.”
“We’ve fostered kittens before, he looks about weaning age, but he just didn’t like the wet food we tried to give him.”
Heather nodded, gently picking up the little thing to give him a closer look. “Warm. I’ll have to take his temperature…” she trailed off, her eyes flickering up to them a moment before she slowly flipped the kitten in her arms. She gently rubbed at the little belly there, and finally took her right glove off when she noticed something odd. “You put him on a scanner? He doesn’t feel… there’s a scar on his stomach. It’s hard to see because of his fur, but I can feel it.”
Robby raised an eyebrow, looking baffled. “Of course. If this was someone’s child, they deserve to know. We’re doctors too, Miss Collins.”
She looked vaguely annoyed with them, but turned to grab a couple of towels to put on the table, and softly pressed the little cub into them, on his back. His curled fur was wild, and Jack felt a growing headache as she started to part the fur there, trepidation in his chest.
He reached back to grab Robby’s hand, tugging him in to look at what she was doing.
“His fur is so curly and thick, but I can see a shifter mark. Worse- I can feel it. You know what that means?”
Robby blanched. “Raised, like a tattoo? Scarring would have stopped the fur growth, but a tattoo would have… made the fur change a bit…”
Heather looked up at them and back down to the kitten. It was extremely illegal to change a shifter’s natural mark. It was only done for those in hiding, and those being trafficked or abused. Jack held an arm in front of Robby, pushing him back a little as Heather took a step back, picking up the kitten as she went.
“I’m going to call my supervisor in.”
Robby suddenly got why Jack had pulled him back, not wanting to look like they would hurt Heather since she knew now. “I’ll call Kiara and Adamson. Our department social worker can help with this.”
Heather narrowed her eyes on them, but waited til she was halfway out the door before saying in a low tone, “those better not be fixers.”
Jack flinched at the thought. He wasn’t going to cover this up, this was something they needed to open wide.
But first, he needed to call in and say they’d both be out of work for a day or two.
That fostering license might be required after all.
She left the room with the kitten -the child- in the crook of her arm, and Jack felt his heart lurch as Robby made a pained noise. “Oh my god.”
Robby nodded. “He’s been with me for hours, why didn’t he just change back?”
Jack raised an eyebrow at him. “Hey, emergency doctor; think of this as a patient. Why would a child shifter with an illegally changed shifter mark choose not to change back to human?”
Robby closed his eyes, looking genuinely sick. “I didn’t want you to say that. Jack, that’s just a child? By the size of him, maybe ten at most?”
Jack pulled out his phone and scrolled through to Adamson’s number. “I know, brother, but he’s… these things happen, even to children. Sometimes especially to children.”
***
Robby was thankful when the woman came back with their boy, setting a pissed looking kitten on the table between them. The little one stumbled over to Robby, who frowned at the tech and supervisor. Robby scooped up the pathetic little thing, and tucked him into his shoulder like Jack had been doing to him earlier, giving soft pets along his back.
The supervisor looked uncomfortable, shifting a little in place. “Sorry, we don’t usually deal with shifters, we took his temperature while out of the room. He has a slight fever.”
Jack damn near growled at that, looking at the women with something akin to fury. “You just contaminated an assault scene, you realize? He could still be carrying effects of assault, and you’ve all but guaranteed that people can point out those effects were the result of taking his temperature while at the vet, and not, say, child abuse.”
The supervisor flinched, but Collins’s face just went pinched, and Jack would bet anything that Heather hadn’t been the one to make that decision or take the kitten’s temperature. “Well, as I said, we don’t get many shifters here-“
“So maybe leave the doctoring up to people who regularly deal with emergency situations involving both shifters and children who’ve been abused?” His voice was low, but Jack had the feeling that the kitten’s ears were still a little too closed up in this form to properly hear him over Robby’s soft humming. Childhood abuse can cause serious delay in shifter growth.
Heather cleared her throat. “We have a version 6.8 GreenTech scanner in the back that was unable to detect any presence of a shifter mark on his stomach, though once his fur is shaved I think we’ll all know we’ll find one. This means that the mark was likely altered recently, and he’s probably been getting it regularly altered since very young childhood, even infancy.”
Robby wanted to throw up. He wanted to hide the little kitten in his chest and refuse to hand him over to anyone. He swallowed, looking ill. “What was his temperature?”
That wasn’t what he meant to ask. He looked at Jack, who watched him carefully, and Robby knew he was showing panic in his eyes. He was suddenly out of his element, and unsure what to do here.
Because he was already attached to the child in his hand. One single hand. That’s all it took to hold the cub to his collarbone. One hand.
“A hundred and four point five. Fevers in cats are about a hundred and three and up.”
Robby nodded, swaying softly while he used a thumb to brush against the cub’s ears. “Explains why he wasn’t hungry. Any signs of what it might be? If he’s been on the street for a bit, he could have parasites or a disease.”
Collins gave a thoughtful hum of her own. “He looks a bit well kept for having been on the street a while. Was he dirty when you found him?”
Robby seemed to think that over, genuinely thinking now, and Jack could kiss her for getting his husband’s brain back online. “Not much. Actual dirt on him. I don’t think he’s been out long. He was sitting in the opening of an alley, just screaming his little head off. He was actively looking for someone to bring him home.”
She nodded, making notes on a chart in front of her. “Sometimes recent pain can give minor fevers in both humans and animals. He might just be feeling… icky…”
Bless her, but she was trying not to actively trigger Robby again. Jack reached over and put a soft hand on his side, stepping in front of him. “Brother, let’s get his tummy shaved down. He’s going to need photo evidence for his files. We need pictures.”
Robby hummed, looking at the towel Heather was fluffing up so it could cradle the kitten on his back. He still had a slightly distant look on his face. “Do you think we’ll be able to foster him?”
Before the supervisor could open her mouth and say something stupid, Jack nodded. “We have an active license, and Kiara and Adamson could probably make it happen.”
Whatever was said by the supervisor went into his ears like ringing, and Robby had the bad feeling he was disassociating, especially as Jack started to argue with her about something.
He wasn’t paying attention anymore. He was looking off into a corner of the room until he felt a small hand on his right elbow, and looked down to see Heather with a soft look on her face, and let the woman lead him over to a chair in the corner.
He sat down and didn’t let go of the snoozing kitten on his shoulder, simply petting him gently while he failed to hear what Heather was saying to him.
He didn’t know how long it was before he started hearing actual words again, and it was only because he barely blinked, and Adamson was kneeling in front of him, looking up with those lovingly stern eyes that always calmed Robby down.
“Hey kid, I heard you found someone that could use a bit of help, huh?” Adamson’s hand covered Robby’s on the snoring cub at his shoulder, and Robby felt himself relax completely, blinking and looking around. Jack and the supervisor were on opposite sides of the room, and Kiara, the younger social worker in the ED, was talking to her with that no-shit look on her face that Robby swears she learned from Dana.
He let Adamson take the kitten off his shoulder without protest, and tried to stand. His legs damn near locked, and Jack had to come over and set him back down, sitting in the chair next to him and pulling Robby’s head in to lean against his own shoulder. “It’s okay, brother. You know that man will be spoiling our new boy before we know it. He’ll be fine. Adamson won’t even let the haircut turn out ugly. Just stay with me for a minute.”
Robby sighed, and the ringing in his ears finally started to calm down.