She had been sitting in the passenger seat for over an hour, the blue recycle box wedged between them.

Jared had followed her without a moments hesitation, though he was practically stumbling after her as she hadn't waited for him to get shoes and a coat. He already knew where she lived, so she didn't bother wasting time. To his credit, he was just half a minute behind her when she walked through her front door.

By then she already had the box with the gremlin held firmly in her arms, and spat out the explanation of what she needed in a series of two sentences: "it's hurt and needs a vet. Will you take me."

Blinking slowly, he agreed.

So there they sat, the cab of the truck uncomfortably warm after he blasted the heat because you look cold, you know? which was utter bullshit but she didn't feel like saying that. She was already regretting her decision to ask him.

They had gotten lost at some point, which she explained by looking at the google maps because it had said they were ten minutes away from their destination for over twenty minutes now. Her patience, thin to begin with, was becoming translucent like the skin of deep sea fish; invisible.

"You're an idiot," she uttered shortly, eyes closed in irritation.

The truck flailed as they thundered over a rather large pothole. "Yeah, you've mentioned that," he grumbled back, scrambling around the next hole in front of them.

The creature in the box beside her was quiet, only making itself heard when its body was rattled too much to be comfortable. But it was mostly quiet, and hadn't hissed unless it thought they were too close.

Sara supposed she would do the same thing if the situation were reversed. She didn't like people touching her, either.

She looked out the window at the passing blurs of trees until finally, Jared slowed the truck to a stop in one of the handful of parking spaces in front of a dingy animal hospital. The parking lot could hold at maximum ten cars, and two of the spaces were already taken up.

But Jared parked the truck and then turned to look at her with those stupidly hopeful eyes of his. "You aren't coming in with me," she told him bluntly, eyes narrowing.

Jared snorted and opened his door to climb out of the truck. "Oh yeah I am."

"Says who?"

"Says you asked me to drive you here with that thing," he retorted while gesturing to the recycle box.

Moments later she was stalking into the clinic with the yowling cat still in the box she carried while Jared hummed his way on after her.

She was more than certain that he was doing this specifically to drive her crazy. Just for the fun of it...or maybe payback for getting him into trouble with Mrs Daria.

Who knew.

What she did know, however, was that she was ready to punch his teeth down into his stomach if he whistled the theme song to CSI one more time through.

She shouldered the door open and was met with the attention of an older woman sitting behind the cluttered but well kept front desk. Her long greying hair fell nearly to her waist, naturally tanned skin wrinkled with age and smile lines. The woman greeted them with a kind smile. "How can I help you kids?" Her name tag read Mona.

Jared opened his mouth to speak, but she didn't have time for niceties. She wanted to get it all sorted out and dealt with. "I found this thing going crazy on my back porch and took pity on it; can you tell me what's wrong with it?"

The woman pressed her lips together but nodded anyway. "I'll take it from here," she allowed with a distasteful look in her direction. "My husband will look it over."

"Fine," Sara shrugged.

Then she sat herself down in one of three faded white seats by the door. She could feel the draft breezing through her pants as the cold often did, but she had grown used to it by now. Welcomed it, even.

"Why so grouchy?"

Slowly, she looked over at Jared and felt irritation flicker through her. "Why so attention-whorish?"

"I'm just saying," Jared shrugged while dramatically holding his hands up. "You've asked her for help and you're being a major bitch about it."

So maybe she was being nasty, but it wasn't like it mattered. She didn't have the energy to pretend she was a kind, life-loving person to begin with and it wasn't like he actually cared about her answers. He was just a ratty teenage boy going to great lengths to piss her off.

La Push was an incredibly small town, even smaller than Forks, and in small towns peoples capacity for adjusting their judgment was even smaller. Practically invisible. Unheard of. So after a year of being as nasty as possible to keep people from prying into her past, she wasn't all that keen on changing their opinion of her.

"And?" She asked with raised brows.

He didn't say anything after that, and as she wasn't pushing for any type of conversation she didn't either.

About ten minutes after that Mona came out with an older man, her hand set gently on his shoulder. "I am doctor Jonathan Deere," he introduced himself with an incline of his head.

"Sara," she returned the action blandly. "So what's wrong with it?"

"She," the doctor corrected, "was attacked by an animal, my guess is a raccoon, and is close to giving birth. It looks like three kittens from what we could see on the ultrasound."

"Fucking shit," she muttered irritably to herself.

That would be an infinitely large problem for whoever got stuck taking care of it.

Mona's expression was disgusted as she looked at her, but Sara paid her no mind. The woman could judge her all she wanted, but until she understood what she'd lived through then her opinion meant nothing.

"So what do we need to take care of her?" Jared asked curiously from next to her, and she felt herself tense.

We? She thought bitterly, clenching at her jaw. All I asked you for was a ride here.

"Well," Doctor Deere began, "she'll be needing medication daily to fight off infection as she heals, as well as somewhere safe to deliver the babies."

"Great," Sara shrugged, irritation melting through every fibre of her. She rose to her feet, head cocking to the side. "Do you have a kennel I can take? My aunt needs the recycle bin."

Twenty minutes later, she had paid the $75 for the kennel and then stuffed the towel in. She watched as Doctor Deere put the cat inside, and then eyed her sceptically. Clearly, his wife wasn't the only one with an issue towards her.

After she had paid for everything else and was given the instructions on the little bottle of pills prescribed to CAT, FEM: ... with various decimals and phone numbers, they were able to leave. Jared had bought the cat — Gremlin, as she had taken to calling her out of sheer irritation — a little toy to play with. It was just a small stuffed thing in the shape of a pea pod with a cute little face stitched into the front. He seemed thrilled about it, while she was anything but.

Without a word to anyone Sara lifted the kennel and stalked out the door of the clinic. She had the recycle box in her other arm and set it down on the concrete when she reached the pickup truck. Then, as Jared was still inside, she pulled out her phone and texted her aunt.

SARA
The stray cat turned up on
the back porch. Attacked by
an animal and it's pregnant. Jared
Cameron drove me to the
nearest vet and volunteered me
and him to take care of it. I'll
show you what's going on once
you get home.

She stuffed her phone in her pocket. By the time she'd done that Jared had arrived back at the truck, and was raising an eyebrow at her. He unlocked the doors and slid into his seat. "So back to your house?"

Slowly, with her brows raised, she turned to look at him. "Are we done calling me a bitch?" She asked monotonously.

Jared blinked at her. "Apparently not, since you're still being one."

She rolled her eyes and set the kennel down in the middle seat, shoved the recycle box behind her them, and got in. She didn't bother providing him with an answer.

Rain poured from the sky again by the time they merged onto the highway, and to fill in the tense silence he had taken to tapping his fingers on the steering wheel to a beat only he could hear. It was annoying.

They rode in silence until the trees on either side of the rode became familiar and they were back in La Push. A heavy mist hung over everything, burying the tips of the trees and anything above them. The older portion of the community was out on their front decks, drinking steaming coffee from a thermal mug. They had blankets over their laps and fluffy slippers on their feet to keep them safe from the cold, but they were at peace in their space.

Sara envied that.

They passed through the town centre before they came into their road, and that was when Jared pulled over onto her front lawn. "I'll see you in the morning," Sara told him bluntly as she slid out of the truck.

Jared choked on air. He blinked at her rapidly, his mouth slightly open. "Wh-huh?"

"I will see you in the morning," Sara repeated slowly.

"For—what for?"

Jesus Christ.

"You volun-told me I'm taking care of this damned cat," Sara told him, a hand set on her hip while the other pulled the recycle bin from behind her seat. "You said I would be doing this, so then you can do your fucking part and help out too."

She didn't give him the opportunity to find a way out of it as she then put the kennel into the bin and walked inside her house. After locking the door and getting herself out of her jacket and boots, she stood in the kitchen and sighed.

Inside the kennel, Gremlin was staring over at her with narrowed gold eyes. "Trust me I'm just as thrilled about this as you are," Sara promised her in a grumble. "Maybe even more so."

The look she got in return said I highly doubt that but the animal simply turned away without a response. As it should be, because the thing couldn't speak, but that was beside the point.

After a long, awkward four and a half minutes she was stalking down the hall to her bedroom. Once inside she looked at the empty corner by the closet, and sighed. Sara didn't bother playing any music as she cleared the area out, knowing that as soon as she took the time to do so she'd lose the energy to actually do what she intended.

Once it was cleared she ducked into the back shed and hauled four of the biggest boxes she could find to frame a sort of sectioned-off space for the creature. Then she sent her aunt a quick text asking about litter for a litter box, laid old blankets over the floor and then finally, grabbed two decent sized bowls from the kitchen; one for food, one for water.

After she set everything up she set the kennel down in the space and opened the door. Then she turned the lights off and closed her bedroom door on her way out to the living room. She sat on the couch in the dark, allowing the silence of the ending day to calm her. All she wanted was to sleep.

So, curling herself under the blanket thrown over the back of the couch, she did.