Chapter 1

An Unordinary Day

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Rachel could recall that her dream had always been Broadway ever since she was a child and now? Now she was living her dream in the city that never sleeps and she couldn't be happier that was a Broadway star and that she made it, she made her dreams come true despite the fact that so many people laughed at her when she was in high school. They ridiculed her, tormented her, and made sure that she would never forget what grape slushies tasted like no matter how many years into the future she was. At least they attempted to do that but now she was sitting in a bar with her cast mates from the Broadway play: Never A Juliet. It was more than just a play to her because the reason this play was even produced was because she had written it long ago during her college years for a drama writing class. Every student had to write a play and because of how attached Rachel was to the plot of the play she wrote it showed and it was now a Broadway success with her as the lead and she couldn't be prouder of the fact that she had originated her own role as the heroine: Dianna Greenburg. She was, of course, based off of Rachel's own personal experiences and she couldn't believe how successful this play had become, her play!

So, now here she was, sitting in a bar with her fellow cast mates and enjoying everything the night had to bring and recounting all of the good and bad things that happened during the play. Despite several mishaps with wardrobe changing, a few buttons popping loose and having to be sewn back together and such things, the play still went off without a hitch and tonight's show was deemed another successful end with applause and cheers.

Rachel was sitting at a large table reserved for them after every show with Kurt sitting next to her, being her best friend had its perks because he was interested in one of her cast mates: Blaine Anderson. Kurt first noticed him when he came to her first show and ever since he had been slowly trying to build up the courage to actually talk to him more than just saying generic greetings. Rachel had been told to lay off with her meddling when he once caught her telling Blaine about him. She swore that she was just talking about him because they lived together and that she was just recalling a funny story about Santana and that he just happened to be involved as well. Kurt gave her a look and she again pleaded innocence and mere coincidence because they were co-habiting. Suffice to say Rachel was being much more careful about her strategic matchmaking talks.

Rachel couldn't believe how well her life had turned out despite all of the taunts, name calling, and bullying, in general, she had had to endure during high school. In fact she was sure it had become better because of all of the torment because it made her stronger for it and gave her a tougher skin for living in New York. But here she was on a night she had thought would be as mundane, though that word was used loosely, as any other day was in her life. There was something different about this day though, something that made it an unordinary day for Rachel. This one event changed Rachel's entire life.

It was on this day that Rachel encountered a situation she had never imagined would happen to her in her life. She had gone home at a rather late hour after enjoying a night out with her cast mates when she noticed something very out of place, something very out of the ordinary on her doorstep. She almost thought that it was a hallucination because of her slight inebriation from slightly excessive drinking to celebrate the last show for Never A Juliet. That is … until she moved closer and the image still didn't change, the small form on her doorstep still didn't move or disappear from sight. In fact, if Rachel had been in a better state of mind she would have started panicking immediately upon seeing the tiny bloody cat lying unconscious on her doorstep with many injuries and no movement to be seen. Rachel's slight inebriation caused her to take several moments to realize that this was, most definitely, a panic worthy situation. Honestly, she should have started panicking long before the realization had occurred to her. This was most definitely not a normal situation nor was it planned as part of her mundane break from Broadway after finishing a successful run with a play she wrote. Where was an instruction manual when she needed it desperately? Where was Kurt or Santana for that matter?

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Though Rachel had stood in front of her apartment like a brainless person for several minutes before finally coming to her senses, she now had some wits about her. She tried to pick up the injured cat as gently as possible, careful of possibly jostling it and further exacerbating its serious looking wounds. She then realized that she had forgotten to dig her keys out of her purse before picking the feline up. She mentally cursed herself as she attempted to balance the cat's body in one arm while simultaneously searching through her purse almost frantically before coming upon victory. She readjusted her grip on the tiny creature as gently as possible because she could hear a strange whistling, wheezing kind of breathing from the moment she moved it.

Finally entering into her apartment building she was glad that she had an apartment on the first floor because that aided her quest a bit. She was, however, unhappy about that fact that she had chosen the one furthest in the building for safety reasons and so she still had a bit of a trek before she made it to her apartment door. She grumbled to herself slightly as she made her way slowly and carefully towards her apartment. When she finally reached the door she breathed a sigh of relief as she opened the door and finally made her way inside to safety. As she closed the door she realized that she didn't know where to put the cat but she quickly decided that it appeared far too injured to sleep on a couch without supervision. After making sure to lock her apartment door's three locks she made her way to her bedroom, seeing as the only other bedrooms were already taken by Kurt and Santana. As she tenderly lowered the cat onto the bed, where she had spread a towel, as gently as possible when she heard her phone beep twice, indicating a text message.

Staying over at Blaine's tonight! I think he's interested! 3 Kurt

Well that explained one thing. Though she was happy for him … she wasn't exactly in the right state of mind to congratulate him in finally building up enough courage to talk to Blaine. She was only 22 years old and was currently trying to figure out what to do for this poor injured cat she had found. Upon looking over at the cat's appearance she saw that it had golden brown fur, no collar, and appeared to be quite slim. There was blood all over the poor thing and severe looking bruises throughout the poor thing's broken body. The cat had a long nose and some distinctive markings on its long face. It looked like a star shaped patch of white amongst the golden brown fur on its forehead and that alone automatically made it a keeper in Rachel's book. Rachel knew, despite her inebriated state, that she should clean the cat's wounds but she didn't want to hurt it and risk it waking up and clawing the hell out of her. She had to though because she didn't want the poor thing to die from blood loss or some kind of infection because she didn't want to hurt the cat even more. It seemed to be unconscious though so … it should be fine. Right? There shouldn't be any harm in her just cleaning the beautiful cat up. Determined Rachel went to her bathroom and took a rubbing alcohol bottle out along with some cotton balls.

She was still slightly nervous about so much as cleaning up the cat's wounds but if she didn't so many bad things could happen to it. She couldn't let that happen! And so, with only slightly shaking hands Rachel dabbed the cotton ball with the rubbing alcohol and started to gently rub it into the cat's wounded leg. It almost made her cry to see the fur matted with blood. She wondered what could have happened to the poor cat for it to end up so severely injured like this. She wondered if someone else had taken to beating up like this because it didn't look like another animal had fought with it and that made her blood boil with rage that someone could hurt this defenseless cat like this.

Her thoughts stilled as she heard a whimper coming from the now awake cat. It didn't at her but it was definitely making noises of discomfort and pain and it broke Rachel's heart to see it trying to twitch away from the painful rubbing alcohol. The way that it could barely even move made Rachel's heart ache even as she continued to clean up various areas that looked even bloodier than where she had started. The more she looked over the cat's body the more injuries seemed to appear out of hidden nooks and crannies on its body. Rachel finally finished cleaning up enough to gently turn it, to which it made another pained, whimpering sound to, and saw that the other side was just as severe, just as beat up and bloody. It made Rachel's blood boil that this poor cat had been hurt so much.

Though the cat looked injured it was quite clean and didn't appear to have any fleas that Rachel could see. In fact … this cat had the softest, silkiest fur Rachel had ever touched before in her life other than her pet cat from Lima. She had a pet kitten when she was younger but it had run away after she had graduated from high school, right before she was set to move to New York if she remembered correctly. She had had the cat it was a tiny little kitten and she was four years old at the time and so she had been heartbroken when it ran away just a few days before she was going to move to New York. She hadn't seen her cat since but this cat, now that she wasn't quite as flustered she noticed that the cat looked remarkably similar to the one she had owned all those years ago. But how could that possibly be if Rachel had lost it in Lima? That cat couldn't have traveled all the way to New York from Ohio because that was just too far away. Homeward Bound was just a movie based on a book that wasn't based on a real life story. There was no way her cat went from Lima, Ohio to Broadway, New York!

Deciding it was safe enough to trust that the cat didn't have any fleas or ticks from how clean its fur seemed Rachel quickly brushed her teeth before hopping into bed. She moved the cat so that it was lying next to her with a fresh towel folded up under it. Little did Rachel know what surprise she was in for the next morning.

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The last thing Rachel remembered was falling asleep next to a cat. What she did not recall, however, was falling asleep next to a blonde woman. The way Rachel woke up was a slow and gradual start. There was something about her day off that made her a bit lazy. She had gone to bed a bit inebriated too so that didn't help with the slight headache she was experiencing. But when the theater was black the next day what better way to spend the day off by starting with a hangover? Rachel swore she would never wake up like this ever again.

It took a moment, a few really, for Rachel to realize there was something different about what she woke up to and she fell asleep to last night. The first thing was definitely that she didn't remember inviting anyone else into her room last night, and there was no way there was Santana was in bed next to her. So the fact that there was some woman sleeping pressed up against Rachel was new to her. The second thing of course was the fact that the cat she had fallen asleep next to was no where she could see. The more pressing matter of course was the woman currently pressed up against her with her arms wrapped around Rachel and somehow, during the night, she had shifted her body into this woman so her head was resting on this woman's breast.

Her reaction was only natural. She screamed, her scream was blood curdling and chilling, startling the person sleeping heavily against her and then all of a sudden there was a cat in front of her again. This was just strange!

If Rachel hadn't screamed herself hoarse already the moment before she would have been screaming again already in terror! Had she just imagined that? Imagined being pressed up against another woman? Was it all just a hallucination and part of a dream? She could have sworn that only a moment before she had been in bed with some stranger she had never met before and that said stranger was also as naked as the day they were born but there was no guarantee about that. She must have just been so drunk that she couldn't comprehend anything properly this morning.

Taking a moment to gather her wits, Rachel took a few deep and calming breaths. She looked down at the poor cat that had shriveled up in itself after she screamed her heart out and seemed to shrink away when she tried to touch it. It made her heart hurt seeing that she had scared this poor thing when it had already been beaten up so severely. She pulled her hand away from the darling and heard it whimper. It moved slowly but surely and tentatively took a step toward her and mewled at Rachel. It was trying to invite Rachel to pet it from just the tiniest bit away from her hand and Rachel felt as if it could sense her emotions. People did say that animals tended to have the ability to sense and read people's emotions. With barely any hesitation she was petting the creature softly on the head and it mewled softly in response and when she hit a certain spot around its neck and it charmed Rachel.

Several moments passed peacefully as she felt the cat move closer and closer to her. Finally it came to her and rubbed its face against her cheek and Rachel smiled, falling in love with the beautiful feline. She paused in her ministrations because her hand was feeling tired and it opened its eyes to reveal a gorgeous hazel with flecks of gold and brown in its irises. The vibrant and intense hue in the cat's eyes were stunning but what caught Rachel off guard was that she felt as if there were emotions in those eyes she was gazing into. It was more than just the look of an animal looking at her … it was as if the cat was looking at her with familiarity and recognition. Rachel thought back to her slightly hazy and blurry night and remembered thinking that this cat resembled the cat she had as a toddler and that thought struck her now more than ever. It was as if the cat knew her more so than it just finding comfort in its savior and rescuer. She almost didn't want to do it but she wanted to see if the cat was a girl or not.

Carefully and somewhat hesitantly, Rachel reached out for the cat and held it up and it didn't struggle in the least. She glanced down in a certain area and saw the lack of a certain something and then hugged the cat to her. She gave the cat a kiss on the top of her head, which made her crinkled her nose a bit at the sensation. She knew it had to be her darling Lucy even though it was hard to believe that Lucy ended up here from Ohio. There was almost no way for it to be possible but Rachel could feel it in her gut that this cat was Lucy and that star shaped mark wasn't all that common so there were slim chances that this cat was an entirely different cat altogether.

She was nervous but she had to try, she had to make sure. She placed the cat gently onto the bed, to which it immediately mewled sadly about and gave her a sad, wounded look. "Lucy," she called and the cat looked up at her at the mention of the name and gave a soft mewl. Rachel knew then. "Lucy," she called again and the cat looked up at her at the name and she just knew there was no way this cat wasn't her cat. "Lucy, come here," and the cat, though injured, got up from the bed and proceeded to jump into her arms and she caught her cat in her open arms. "I finally found you again Lucy!" She didn't care if her roommates didn't want a cat in the apartment. She had finally found her Lucy and she wasn't going to give her up.

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"Hell. No." Two simple words and Rachel was already feeling frustrated.

"Though I agree with the sentiment those words are a bit cruder than what I'd use."

"There is no time for that Porcelain. Quit being so dainty and just repeat after me: hell, no."

Kurt rolled his eyes at Santana, "Eloquence is definitely something you need to work on, Santana."

"Ain't nobody got time for that shit Prancy Pony." The nicknames were endless with Santana so Kurt just gave up.

It was Rachel's turn to roll her eyes at them. Even as they agreed with each other they still bickered and acted like children in their agreement over something.

"Look, Lucy was missing for over four years and now that I've found her I'm not letting her run away ever again! I was devastated because I'd had her since I was four before she ran away right before I moved here four years ago! She was just barely a baby when I first got her all those years ago! I think she was only a few months old and she had been abandoned when we found her." Rachel paused, "well, actually, I found her in my backyard just lying on the grass and she was barely alive. We nursed her back to health from the weak, feeble thing she was then and ever since then she was with me until a few days before I moved to New York. I think … I think she could tell I was going to move and then she ran away. How she ever managed to get to New York of all places is beyond me but she responds to the name Lucy and she has this little star shape on her forehead like my Lucy! I even looked at pictures on my laptop that I've taken of us together over the years and she looks exactly the same!"

They still looked skeptical. "Well … let me try to call her to see if she really is Lucy or if she just responds to whatever you say because she likes you." Kurt, ever the sweetheart, offered to at least see if the cat was indeed a Lucy and not just responding to any name Rachel gave it. "Lucy," he called out and the cat, still in Rachel's arms and had been nuzzling into anywhere she could reach on Rachel's person, looked over at Kurt in response, pausing in its nuzzling. When Kurt said nothing else she went back to nuzzling into Rachel's neck and purring from the attention Rachel was giving her with the soft strokes on her head. "Lucy," he called again and this time when she looked over at Kurt she seemed to be a bit annoyed but looked at him nevertheless. "Okay, so her name is definitely Lucy and she actually looks annoyed that I keep calling her."

The beaming smile on Rachel's face made Kurt feel a little guilty about saying no when it seemed that there was no convincing Rachel this cat might not be her Lucy. The cat seemed enamored with Rachel, that much was for sure, and she had made no effort to leave Rachel's arms at all after both Santana and he had come back to the apartment within half an hour of each other to find Rachel sitting on the couch with Lucy in her lap. Lucy had not once let her attention waiver from Rachel until Kurt had called out to her earlier. She didn't acknowledge anyone but Rachel in this room. They could tell that the cat looked rather beaten and hurt from the way it would sometimes flinch away when Rachel touched certain areas. Not even once had it made any attempt to move away from Rachel's touch though.

Santana was harder to read than Kurt. "Lucy," she called, and the cat looked over to Santana, a new person, and did nothing more than look at her for a moment before turning back to Rachel and lying back into her arms again. There was no doubt that the cat definitely responded to the name Lucy. "Lacy," Santana said this time and the cat didn't even look up. "Lucy," and it looked over at her again and gave an annoyed mewl at hearing its name yet again. "Loosely," Santana tried this time with a word relatively similar to Lucy. Lucy didn't even look over and contently rubbed her head into Rachel's arms, purring. "Lucy," this time when Lucy turned to Santana it actually made a disgruntled sounding meow at her for constantly calling her name for no reason other than to get her attention. It was almost like an equivalent to how a person would say 'what?' after hearing someone calling for their attention too many times without saying why. It was actually rather amusing to see a cat basically become annoyed with Santana.

"May I hold her Rachel?" Kurt asked after his amusement subsided slightly. Rachel felt the cat almost tense at the question and it made her think that Lucy could somehow understand what was going on. She took a step forward and felt Lucy bury herself further into her. After another step it was as if Lucy was trying to mold herself into Rachel's body. Rachel soothingly rubbed Lucy on her head and belly and felt her relax slightly. As soon as Rachel held her out to Kurt though Lucy seemed to panic though no sound escaped her and she looked at Rachel with so much emotion in her eyes Rachel thought Lucy was almost giving her … human emotions. Kurt had Lucy in his lap and Lucy didn't relax even as he pet her head and tried to coax her into purring with his gentle ministration. "I … I think she might really be your cat Rachel. She's not responding to me at all and is, in fact, quite terrified from what I can see."

Curiosity was taking over Santana now that Kurt had interacted with the cat but the kitty didn't like it at all. "Let me try?" Kurt handed Lucy over as gently as possible, mindful of the battered cat's soreness. Lucy was just as stiff it seemed as it lay in Santana's lap and Santana tried to pet it as well to absolutely no avail. The way Lucy was acting it seemed she was terrified of Santana, too. "Yeah … it's got to be yours because it only likes you."

"She," Rachel corrected to Santana's eye roll. "Lucy," Lucy looked up at Rachel with such fearful eyes. "Come here," but Lucy wouldn't move. "Come on girl, come here for me," Rachel tried again and this time Lucy, though seemingly still scared moved one paw slowly, carefully, and then another until she was standing up. Lucy moved on the area between the couches but wouldn't move any further, afraid to jump off it seemed. Lucy looked up at Rachel, it was almost an imploring look for Rachel to move closer. When Rachel stepped a few steps closer Lucy jumped right into Rachel's arms and mewled happily.

If they had any doubts before, there was no doubt now about whom Lucy belonged to.

"Just make sure she doesn't get into my things and ruin anything." Santana moved off of the couch into her room.

Kurt studied the pair for a moment before nodding his agreement. "She stays out of my room because I can't have her getting into any of the fabric for my clothing designs." Kurt paused, looking at the cat closely, "I don't know what happened to her but … I would never let anyone ever hurt her. She looks beaten up and I think she's scared of anyone who isn't you, Rachel."

It wasn't quite acceptance so much as them tolerating the cat's presence but it was better than nothing at least. And neither of them threatened to kill her for letting the cat in before figuring out it was hers. That had to be something, right?

"You better take it to the vet for shots before we get fleas and shit!"

Santana would never learn to filter her comments and this one in particular made Rachel scowl and mutter under her breath, "I was already going to do that later today."

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So, chapter one and this is relatively innocent for now but I plan on it going to M eventually as a warning. Please leave your thoughts in a review to tell me if you like it!^^

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