Author's note

I apologise for the flabby chunk of steak of a chapter last time that was I'm sure very difficult to for you all to digest, only the introduction of a cat into someone's life is an important one and I wanted this chapter to establish Tiger's kitten days (well, years for her) and I hope you understand. But anyway, on with the story!

Thanks for reading.

Slightly Mad xx

January

"BLOOOOOOOOOOD!!"

That's the howl of horror that Freddie woke up to in the house that morning.

"Shit what?!" He sprung out of bed and grabbed his robe. "Where?!"

He found David standing in the sitting room, pointing down at the carpet in horror.

"Where is it?" Freddie asked as he tied his robe.

"There!" David whimpered, horrified.

Freddie bent down to look at the few small drops of blood just in front of the settee. Jerry sat on the windowsill, watching the scene taking place.

"Wh-how?" He muttered. "We didn't hurt ourselves recently did we?"

After a moment of pondering David spoke up.

"This is probably a very stupid question... but do cats get periods?"

"Alright dear that is a stupid question. Why?" Freddie sighed and asked.

"Well, Tiger's a girl..." David suggested.

Freddie immediately stood back up and went looking for his cat care manual. When he found it sitting in the shelf he flicked through to the reproduction pages until he found that Tiger was going through 'the heat' or 'estrus', and the advice was:

"It is very important that you keep the animal indoors and closely supervised at all times; don't let her wander outside until you book an appointment with your veterinary surgeon to perform the simple operation."

Tiger was excessively yowling and meowing and panting in recent times. And it confused them both, until now.

"Shit!" Freddie dropped the book. "We need to find her!"

"Why?" David followed him.

"You're sort of right. She's ovulating!" Freddie replied before calling for her. "Check the back garden."

David cursed under his breath and went to the back doors as Freddie rushed up the stairs. They searched for a good ten minutes but they couldn't find Tiger. They looked through her favourite snoozing spots: their bed, the settee, her top-loading carrier, the laundry hamper, the patio on which the sun shone on, the space in front of the radiator, but they were unsuccessful.

"Did you check the garden thoroughly?" Freddie asked David as they stood in the landing, and he nodded.

Jerry stood at their feet absentmindedly. He could tell that there was something wrong amongst the two humans. But he didn't know why or what. He knew where Tiger was, but he didn't care and he didn't speak the human language so what would even be the point in communicating.

"Shit... I looked everywhere." Freddie whimpered in panic.

"Try your fur coat," David suddenly said, remembering. "I saw her asleep there yesterday."

Freddie ran into their bedroom and rushed over to the chair where he left his fur coat sitting the past few days. And indeed there Tiger was, curled up asleep, and camouflaged against it with her fur.

"Ah hah!" David snapped his fingers. "Now what is it we do?"

"Darling she just needs spayed." Freddie picked her up gently. "She's getting to be a big girl you know..."

As Tiger's eyes fluttered open sleepily, Freddie lifted her tail down and examined her, and indeed the fur around her 'area' was covered in blood.

"That explains your problem," he held her up to David. "The blood is hers."

"EWWWW!" David pulled a face and backed away. "Don't shove her bloody bum in my face!"

Freddie laughed and stood back up, "'bloody'...anyways dear, we need to bring her to the vets, and you're driving."

David rolled his eyes, "alright, well that's ruined our day off."

Ten minutes later...

Where are they taking me, Tiger thought as she felt the humans carry her out of the house in her bed, or the basket.

"How long do you think they'll be?" David asked.

"Don't know dear," Freddie replied as he put his aviators on and opened the back door. "Maybe the vet will tell us."

"Well, how long did it take Jerry to have his balls chopped off?" David asked as he got in the front seat, causing Freddie to let out a high pitched cackle.

"Oh dear... well, from what I remember it only took a hour. But then again his sexual organs were already outside the body so I don't know if this one will be as short as that." Freddie said as he strapped Tiger's basket in the backseat.

Immediately Tiger began to get fears that she was going to be abandoned. Everything was so familiar to that awful, awful night she lost her family. "What's happening?! Where am I going? Please don't leave me!" She mewed louder and louder in panic, and of course it was hard for a feline lover like Freddie to handle.

"Maybe I should take her basket on my lap." He looked at the backseat as David started the ignition.

"Yeah but what if the basket suddenly flies into the front seat and opens and she scrabs my face?" David said.

Freddie scoffed, "Whimp! Where in London do you think that'll ever happen?!"

And David just shut up, and with a satisfied smile Freddie turned around and pulled the basket onto his lap, and David drove off.

Another ten minutes later...

"Where am I?" Tiger meowed, huddled at the back of her basket as it sat on Freddie's lap as he and David sat in in the waiting room.

"I wish that bloody dog would stop looking at the basket..." Freddie hissed under his breath to David as the drooling Rottweiler sat across from them, his eyes fixated on the carrier as if he knew a tasty little morsel was in there.

"It'll be soon, babe," David whispered. "I booked it for 11:30 which just about..." he stopped to look at his watch, "now."

"Can the owners of Tiger Mercury please go into the practise now? Dr Mahsood is ready." The receptionist called out, and David and Freddie stood up.

"Oh no..." Tiger thought as they carried her in. Everything smelt strange and mysterious and wrong from outside her basket. The new environment, the veterinary practise, was bright and everything bleeped and made strange noises as light flooded into her basket. And worst of all there was no place for a snooze.

There was no trace of home.

"So, what I'm going to do is take the ovaries out and stitch her back up and she'll be ready to go home this afternoon." Dr Mahsood explained as he examined a wide eyed Tiger on the table.

"Will she be sore?" Freddie asked nervously.

"Only for a few days," the vet replied in his accented English. "You must take good care of her and make sure she doesn't pull out her stitches... if necessary we can provide an Elizabethan collar to stop her going at it if she's shown to get irritated."

"Bloody hell..." Freddie muttered. "Alright then. When should we pick her up?"

"Drop by in a few hours." he put Tiger back in her basket gently. "You'll need to sign a few forms when you get back."

David nodded, "of course. Thank you."

"We'll be back, little darling," Freddie scratched Tiger under the chin the way she liked it. "Be a good girl."

"What?! No! Please don't go! Come back!" She mewed as the two humans walked away, and Dr Mahsood chuckled, "don't you worry little one. We'll all take good care of you."

He stroked her gently, and a veterinary nurse came in just as Tiger was beginning to feel content and relaxed.

"Get the gas mask," the doctor told her. "She's ready."

Tiger lay down on the operation table as Dr Mahsood placed the mask over her mouth, and she closed her eyes.

"I feel like having a nap..." she thought as the nurse switched the gas on, and she became sleepier and sleepier...

A few hours later...

"Poor thing..." Freddie murdered as he peered inside the carrier. "That stitch looks rather tight and painful."

"We must keep an eye on her." David said as the car spun around a sharp corner

"Slow the f... down!" Freddie hissed, grabbing the basket carrier. "You'll hurt her in there!"

"She's unconscious, Freddie!" David sighed.

"She's probably having a bad dream that she's being tortured or something." He snapped, and David rolled his eyes.

"The vet said we have to take care of her, remember?"

"I know and your wacko driving won't bloody help will it?!" Freddie shot back.

David raised his voice, "Well, neither will your bitchy little rants so I suggest you put a cork in it and then I'll get us home more efficiently and safer! You're a grown man, Freddie! Not a seven year old child who likes bloody cats-"

"SHUT UP! J-JUST... JUST SHUT THE F... UP!" Freddie shouted, tears in his eyes and red face overcome with rage.

And with a violent thud, David braked the car in the middle of the busy London street, causing it to rock. What David said had crossed the line. It agitated Freddie that nobody in the world understood his love for cats, and hurt badly. Also, Freddie always found it hard to admit when he was wrong; it made him feel small knowing he'd hurt someone he cared about and treated them badly.

The noise levels woke Tiger.

"Wh-What's happening?" She mewed as she opened her eyes and uncurled herself, and she looked up only to notice her favourite human's head was blocking the light above her from entering her carrier. Then she felt something wet, like a water droplet fall onto her fur.

"Babe..." David cautiously reached over and placed a hand on his boyfriend's shoulder, but Freddie held tighter into the carrier, flinching away from his touch as he did so and sobbed louder.

"I'm sorry I'm so useless and babyish and a bloody spoilt brat!" Freddie cried, his voice muffled in his sleeve.

"Sshhh Freddie no no I'm sorry I spoke the way I did..." David unbuckled his seatbelt and shuffled closer. "It's just... oh I don't know. I know you can be a real child sometimes-"

"There! See? You said it..." Freddie snivelled as he clutched Tiger's carrier. "I should never have brought her home."

"Oh now come on Freddie, don't use emotional blackmail on me!" David sighed. "If she makes you happy then she makes me happy too... I know it's weird but I love watching you act like a total goof around the two of them, and the way you smile when you play on the carpet or on the grass outside, or the way you coo over her when Jerry gets grumpy because she gets all the attention... it's endless."

Freddie lifted his head from his arm slowly, "Oh David..."

As they smiled at each other (form of apology) Tiger mewed louder to catch their attention. For a start she felt dizzy, and her mouth tasted funny. And also the area near her hind leg particularly felt cold and underneath the skin rather sore and empty.

"Oh hello darling," Freddie croaked and opened the top hatch. "How's my pretty little girl feeling now?"

Tiger purred as she felt his large hand reach in and rub her head soothingly as a beaming David watched them both, and suddenly there was a knock on the driver window.

"You can't stop 'ere, mate." A traffic warden said to David as soon as he wound his widow down. "'Ave you lost the plot?"

"Oh sorry." David snapped back to the present world and switched his engine on. "Let's get going."

Freddie nodded meekly and took his hand out of the carrier before shutting the top, and David moved away, and in minutes they were back at the flat.

When they were back in the bedroom that afternoon, it was Freddie who thought he should break the silence, "David?"

"Hmm?" He grumbled in reply as he lay down at stared out the window.

Freddie was stroking Tiger gently on his side of the bed, "...thank you for putting up with me..."

"It's bollocks." David said flatly, causing Freddie to wince inside a little.

"W-What?" He choked.

David turned his head on the pillow to face him, "You always put the cats over me."

Ouch, Freddie thought. He sat up and opened his mouth but no words escaped it. As much as he hated the truth, David was right. Freddie had no valid argument as to why he loved his cats as much as he did.

David scoffed and stood up before silently walking out, and Freddie lay there still with hurt, but most of all with guilt. He rolled over to face the only things that made him feel better: cats.

"What happened to you?" Jerry purred as he sat on the pillow.

Tiger still felt strange and tired. And her lower half of her body felt sore. Then Jerry asked her again, "Why are you bald there?"

"Where?" Tiger mewed, then she followed Jerry's eyes looking at the lower half of her body, and indeed the area above her hind leg was bald, which explained the strange cold feeling. And to explain the irritation? In the middle of that bald patch there was a tightly twisted piece of wire holding her shaved skin together where the surgical incision was made.

"W-WHAT HAPPENED?! WHERE DID MY FUR GO?!" Tiger mewed louder in panic as she scrambled up onto her feet, but Freddie reached over and petted her, shushing her gently And soon enough she calmed.

"Well let me ask... were you taken into a really clean, discomforting room?" Jerry asked.

"Yes." Tiger mewed in reply, and the cat conversation caused Freddie to chuckle ever so lightly.

"And did the room have a man in a strange white garment that those silly humans wear to cover their baldness?" Jerry asked.

"He did!" Tiger mewed, relieved that Jerry showed some understanding. "You know him?!"

"You might want to watch out for him." Jerry purred. "Once a year, he sticks things in my ears and opens my mouth and his ugly face peers inside it with a strange bright light on a stick and he took my manhood away from me once... I woke up and my balls weren't there anymore."

"Ewwww!" Tiger mewed.

"Sorry, tmi." Jerry quickly meowed. "But, the funny thing is, you always come back from The Man In The White Coat feeling better."

"That's odd." Tiger meowed. "I don't feel any better."

"Give it time." Jerry replied. "His magic works differently all the time."

Tiger shuffled around to look at her favourite human, pondering why he'd do such a thing to her and Jerry as send them to The man in the White Coat but at the same time glad to be in his company. He wasn't cuddling or petting her as much as she wanted, and she felt something wasn't right.

"He seems off. Maybe one of us should cheer him up and go catch him a bird or a mouse." Tiger mewed.

"Nah I wouldn't bother. I've tried getting the most delicious mice in the past for him, especially when he was with the female human. But he doesn't eat them ever. In fact he made a strange screeching noise almost every time. Just another severe disorder if the predatory instinct that humans have." Jerry purred.

"Oh... then how can I cheer him up?" Tiger asked.

"Well, just by being you, I guess." He replied. "You're a cat. I'm a cat. He likes that I guess and it's because he picks us up and gives us attention at unwanted intervals."

Tiger didn't reply or acknowledge, but she agreed; Freddie did seem to light up whenever she or Jerry was there. So Tiger turned back to her favourite human, and head butted his arm gently. Freddie looked over to face her and he moved his arm out of her way so that she could walk onto his tummy and settle there.

"Oh you cats..." Freddie whispered as he stroked her with the back of his hand, his other arm reaching over to pet Jerry. "I don't know how you make me smile... how you get out of trouble so easily... how you manage to stay irresistible... life would be so much easier being a cat."

even though they both understood what he was saying, Jerry especially, they'd beg to differ.

June

"Oh another warm sunny day to lie out on the warm grass and stretch and sleep..." Tiger purred as she rubbed against Freddie's leg as he opened the window in the living room.

"Freddie, can you come the f... back inside please?! I'm not done talking!!" David shouted, causing Freddie to let out an exasperated sigh and trudge to the kitchen.

Oh, in case you're wondering things weren't going well between Freddie and David. These days the flat was filled with stomping and shouting and chaos, their sex life turned bland, and Freddie was out working late in Wessex Studios which irritated and worried David greatly. After all, Freddie did meet him working late and that's how he ended up cheating on his girlfriend the year before, even though this time he was very determined with his song writing and Queen's success; he predicted something special about to happen. And things only got worse since Freddie punched David at the club the week before. Today was Freddie's day off, but because he was never home anymore life became so boring during the day. The other day when he was sitting on the sofa in the living room he saw his rug in the middle of the floor with the sunlight spilled out on it and he exclaimed, "Bloody hell! Is that what it really looks like during daylight hours?! Did you get a new rug, David? The colour doesn't look right!" even though David explained for at least half an hour through yelling that it was always the same rug.

"Goddamn it is roasting, David! Can you at least let me open the bloody window?" Freddie snapped as he entered the kitchen.

"There's no bloody point. It's just as hot in here as it is out there..." David argued back.

Meanwhile in the living room, Tiger had climbed up the window frame and crawled out onto the steps and curled up. She would sleep on the hot Tarmac but there were cars speeding by. Jerry followed, but he headed past the pavement towards another location.

"Where are you going?" Tiger meowed to him.

"Oh, I'm going to go across the road to the house and eat the other cat's food, then I'm going to find a snoozing spot." Jerry pounded down the walkway.

"Alright, have fun..." Tiger meowed after him.

And like that, Jerry was off on his daily exploration.

So Tiger sprawled out onto the concrete steps and closed her eyes, ignoring the sounds of the London traffic. As intended, she had a peaceful little snooze.

Well, it was peaceful until David burst out of the front door with luggage in hand, Freddie following behind quickly.

"David, babe, please don't leave!" He protested, close to tears.

David spun around on his heels and gave him a glare, "...I'm not your babe."

"We can settle this," Freddie followed behind as he rushed down the pavement, tears streaming down his cheeks. "Please think-"

"Freddie! If you care about me and you want me to be happy you'd let me go wouldn't you?" David spun around again and screamed in his face, the increased noise levels causing Tiger to hide behind the wall of the steps.

Freddie didn't say anything. He stood there, lip trembling violently. What else could he say? David continued walking away, and when a taxi rushed past he signalled it and jumped in. Tiger peeped over the wall and watched as Freddie stood there and cried as the taxi disappeared down Stafford Terrace and out of sight. He'd never felt so utterly used and guilty.

That evening...

Tiger woke up on the settee in the living room, and something felt wrong. First off, she was getting used to the first few hours without David in the house, and one major lift was the fact that the house was already quieter. But another issue she had was that Jerry wasn't in her peripheral vision, and she couldn't feel his presence. It didn't seem right as they often stuck together in the the same room.

"Right, Tiger... dinner" Freddie croaked flatly with eyes red from crying as he stood at the doorway, shaking a bag of cat biscuits to tempt her.

"Ohh yes food time!" She pounced off the settee and followed him to the kitchen.

"Jerry! Food!" He shouted through the house weakly as he poured food out in Tigers bowl.

"Funny..." Tiger thought as she munched on her supper. "It's not like Jerry to be late for food time."

And indeed I wasn't. Even Freddie could sense it wasn't right for a cat as chubby and greedy as Jerry to miss his dinner, so he started to panic a little.

"You continue eating up, darling. I'm going to look for Jerry..." Freddie muttered skeptically as he rushed out of the kitchen and to the double doors.

For a good five to ten minutes Freddie stood outside in the back Terrace, shouting Jerry's name continuously. Although he wasn't popular with his neighbours he popped by to both and asked them to keep an eye out. He picked the most recent photograph that he could find just in case he needed proof of what Jerry looked like if he had to resort to sending out fliers.

It made him sad looking at it; it was taken by David a month before in the back garden. He sighed and set it on the coffee table and flopped down on the settee. He switched his perspective to negative, and now he was expecting the worst. Five minutes later, the worst he got.

There was an urgent knock on the door, and Freddie immediately stood up to get it. He was sincerely hoping it was David coming back, but instead he met an old lady, and old lady who didn't look in the least bit hopeful...

"Hello, dear..." she asked him. "Do you-Do you have a cat?"

"Oh, yes!" He said, slightly taken aback but relieved. "I have two but one of them hasn't appeared for his dinner."

The woman anxiously flinched a little, which concerned Freddie, but carried on, "Oh, well, could you please describe to me what he looks like?"

"Well, he's a tortoiseshell... so parts of his fur are ginger and others and black and white... he's a little overweight for a cat." Freddie explained.

Then there was a moment's silence.

"My husband and I found a dead cat on the tarmac just outside our house, most likely knocked down..." she exhaled cautiously. "We heard you calling for someone and we fear that the cat is yours."

Devastation and grief flooded into Freddie's body, "What?! Jerry!! JERRY NOOO!!"

Tiger opened her eyes immediately when she heard Freddie's wails of sadness, and she scurried to the hallway and watched as Freddie darted out of the flat and across the road where the lady's husband was standing over Jerry's still body with a torch. Tiger pounded to the doorway and watched as Freddie fell to his knees in front of the lifeless pile of fur and cried. Immediately Tiger knew that something bad had happened to Jerry; he found the hot tarmac which was heated up by the afternoon sun as his new snoozing spot and soon he was gone.

"Jerry!" She meowed mournfully on the step. "No!"

The kind lady quickly swooped Tiger up and carried her back inside before petting her gently in her arms to try and calm her. She then went into Freddie's kitchen and started making tea, but Tiger ran to the windowsill and meowed for her lost friend, watching Freddie begin to grieve.

Ten minutes later the lady walked Freddie back into his flat with a wool blanket she had found wrapped around him to try and soothe and calm him, and her husband followed carefully carrying in a cardboard box. She gave him a cup of tea and the couple stayed for another half hour before leaving him when they knew he'd be fine. Freddie sat on his settee in the living room, the box containing Jerry's body placed on his coffee table. 

He'd never had a worse, more heartbreaking night in his life; his boyfriend left, and his cat died.

"Oh Tiger..." he sighed as he sobbed. "It's just-It's just us now."

She was curled up on his lap, his hands petting her soft fur gently, she purring in response to his warmth and affection. After a while he carried her up to bed and the two of them curled up under the covers and closed their eyes, drifting off to sleep with thoughts of the worst case scenarios imaginable.

Queen may have been about to hit the peak of their success, but were things going to get better in Freddie and Tiger's life?

The next morning...

Freddie took a deep breath as he walked outside to the freshly dug hole at the bottom of the sunny garden with an old shoebox in his arms, Tiger following at his feet. He invited his ex girlfriend Mary to come along; it was her cat too for a while after all, but she declined because she had "plans" with another man, much to his dismay.

"Glad you're coming along to say goodbye, darling," he looked down and smiled a little. "I know you and Jerry sometimes never really got along, but he did teach you a lot of survival abd hunting skills out in the garden and I'm happy for that."

When he got there he knelt down gently and lowered the shoebox in, Tiger sitting by and watching.

"Why don't the humans just leave them lying there? That's what we do." She thought as Freddie placed it down.

When he was done filling Jerry's grave back up, Freddie took a step back before putting the shovel back in the shed, and Tiger scampered over to his legs again. He smiled and picked her up.

"You know what, darling? Screw men. Screw angry fat cats! I'm done with them and all I need at a time like this is you!" He cooed and kissed her nose, and Tiger purred and pawed his nose in return, causing him to giggle. And he carried her back inside, feeling more than ready to move on.

Maybe it wasn't so bad after all.