CATS 20th Anniversary

Chapter 4: Illness

Written by Silvana and Tailkinker

Several weeks had passed and everyone had at least their tails so they could get used to dancing with them on. Fiona twirled around the hotelroom, delighting in the sight of her white tail swinging behind her. "Careful, Fi," Danielle cautioned her. "You might twirl that thing off."

"I know I shouldn't," Fiona confessed, flopping onto her bed and breathing harder than she should. "But it's so much fun."

"I understand," Danielle toyed with her black, white and red tail, running it through her fingers and tossing the tip from hand to hand. "I can't resist playing with mine, either."

"So I see," Fiona pulled her sketchpad out of her bedside table and began sketching her friend sitting on the bed, playing with her tail. The other woman ignored her friend and stared off into space, still playing with her tail.

"Hey, you two," Angela entered the room carrying two large shopping bags.

"Hey," Fiona glanced up at the younger woman, then returned to her sketch. "What'd you do, buy out the whole store?"

"Nope," Rebecca answered cheerfully as she followed her friend into the room, equally burdened with shopping bags. "We sure tried, though."

"I'll bet you did," Danielle eyed the four bulging shopping bags. "Y'know, Christmas is still a month or two away. We have yet to get through Halloween."

"Yeah," Angela agreed, "but that's tomorrow, so Christmas isn't far away."

"True," Fiona inclined her head, almost finished with her sketch, "but you need to leave some stuff for the rest of us to buy," the four women stared at each other, then started to laugh. Fiona's laugh turned into a cough and the other three watched with worried eyes as she fought to stop the coughs.

"Maybe you should see a doctor," Danielle commented worriedly when Fiona finally stopped.

"I don't have time," Fiona answered, finishing the sketch with a flourish. She turned the pad so the others could see. "What d'you think?"

"That's wonderful," Angela took the pad and looked closer. "It's so realistic."

"That's what I was aiming for," Fiona told the teenager as the dishwater blonde girl flipped to the beginning and looked through all of the sketches, her golden blonde friend looking over her shoulder.

"Gee, some of these go back to the first audition," Rebecca commented as Angela slowly looked through the sketches. "Hmm, Dakota seems to make an appearance quite often in the more recent sketches," Fiona blushed. Rebecca squealed over the next picture, causing the other three to wince. "That's a good sketch of Quintin!"

"Would you like to own it?" Fiona offered.

"Sure, if you don't want to keep it," Rebecca gazed rapturously at the sketch.

"May I see that real quick, Angie?" Fiona held out her hand for the pad. Angela handed the pad to the older woman. Fiona signed and dated the sketch with a flourish, then carefully tore it out of the pad. She handed the pad back to Angela, who noticed that the following sketch was of Dakota mid-leap. Fiona reached into her bedside table again and pulled out an empty frame. She carefully slid the picture into the frame and handed it to Rebecca. "There you go, Becca."

"Thanks, Fiona," Rebecca beamed at the woman.

"You're welcome."

"Look," Eliot Tecee, the troupe's Old Deuteronomy, nudged Loren Johnson, who played Bustopher Jones/Asparagus/Growltiger, and indicated 24-year-old Dakota.

Loren looked. "Yeah, so?"

"Look where's *he's* looking," Eliot indicated with a sweep of his hand.

"He's looking at Fiona," Loren answered. "So what?"

"Would you say that he likes her?" Eliot asked with arched cinnamon- sugar-colored eyebrows.

"Well, duh," Loren rolled his blue eyes. "He's only been watching her like a lovesick puppy ever since he first laid eyes on her."

"I didn't notice until yesterday," Eliot admitted.

"What's the matter?" Loren ribbed. "Been thinking about the missus?"

"Yeah," Eliot sighed. "I don't know why I'm still doing this when I keep leaving her at home to look after the kids."

"Simple," Loren shrugged. "You enjoy performing too much to stop just yet."

"Well, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I couldn't pass up," Eliot admitted. "After this tour, I'm gonna stick to Broadway."

"Sure," Loren snorted his disbelief, knowing his longtime friend too well to believe that vow. "Whatever," Eliot stuck his tongue out at his friend.

"Hey, Quin," Danielle greeted the tall, lanky Rum Tum Tugger, who was practicing his routine on the stage.

"Oh, hey, Dani," Quintin greeted the short, innocent-looking 21-year- old. "What's up?"

"Not much," Danielle answered, hoisting herself up onto the stage. "I'm just worried about Fiona."

"Why?" Quintin asked, watching Danielle climb up to Jemima/Sillabub's customary spot atop the Ol' Ford.

"She's been coughing a lot lately and late at night she goes into the bathroom and cries," Danielle replied, her sea green eyes clouded with worry.

"Do you know what's wrong?" Quintin asked, climbing up onto the trunk of the Ol' Ford.

"No, she won't talk to me, even when it's just us in the room," Danielle answered, noticing how interested Quintin was in her. "I'm sorry, I've been venting and have hardly given you a chance to talk," Danielle apologized, her accent becoming more pronounced.

"That's alright. All of my roomies are stuck on their own problems, and are gone most of the time so I haven't really had a chance to get to know them except for Frank, whom I've known since elementary school," Quintin assured her, playing with his tan and black tail.

"So you two have dreamed of CATS together?" Danielle asked, suddenly *very* interested in Quintin's life.

"Yup. Frank's always wanted to be Mac and, of course, I've always wanted to be Tugger."

"Looks like you got your wish," Danielle said, looking deep into Quintin's plum-colored eyes.

Quintin shrugged, "I guess," Quintin stared right back into Danielle's own sea green eyes. The two dancer/singers were in the same position when Angela and Rebecca walked onto the stage ten minutes later to practice.

When Rebecca saw Quintin, she did a classic Etcetera scream, clambered up onto the trunk and practically crawled into Quintin's lap. "Hi, Quin," Rebecca drawled, barely containing a giggle.

"Hey, Becca," Quintin said, picking the small teen up easily and putting her down on the trunk before standing up, offering Danielle his arm and climbing down from the trunk and walking out of the theater with a shocked Rebecca and Angela staring after them.

"Hey, Bom," Sharon nudged Emma, who was reading a beauty magazine. "Looks like Quin isn't interested in you."

"Huh?" Emma looked up from her magazine and her green eyes widened when she saw Quintin and Danielle strolling by arm-in-arm, talking in quiet, intense voices. "No, this isn't right," Sharon watched as her friend stood up, threw her magazine onto the bench and walked over to the talking couple. "Hi, Quin," the taller woman purred, one hand tipped with long red fingernails curling possessively around his bicep.

"Hi, Em," he answered, helpless to resist as Emma tugged insistently on his arm, away from Danielle. "Did you want something?"

"Yes," Emma finally pulled his arm out of Danielle's. "But it's private," the look she gave the smaller woman clearly said, 'Beat it. He's mine.' Danielle stiffened at the challenge but conceded the round to Emma.

"Okay," Danielle nodded stiffly, the determination in her sea green eyes telling Emma that she wasn't giving up. "I'll leave you two to talk."

"Ta ta, Dani," Emma fluttered her red-tipped fingers at the woman.

"'Bye, Dani," Quintin shrugged apologetically at the other woman. "See ya 'round."

"See ya," Danielle walked back into the theater, her tail swishing around her slender legs. When she entered the house, she saw a lone figure dancing onstage. As she drew closer, a cough told her it was Fiona. She stopped right in front of the stage and noticed a dark figure watching from the shadows of the now-finished pipe. After Fiona finished her dance, she collapsed into an exhausted heap. "You really shouldn't be pushing yourself like this, Fi," Danielle hoisted herself onto the stage and walked over to the shorter woman, who was breathing harder than she should be after doing a dance that slow.

"I *know* the doc told me not to exert myself," Fiona stretched out on her back, staring up into the shadows of the stage's vaulted ceiling. "I just can't help it. I've been dreaming about this so long that it bugs the crap out of me to be sick like this."

"I understand," Danielle gently pulled the other woman's auburn head into her lap and began stroking the red-brown mane of curls, "but, if you keep up like this, you're gonna end up in the hospital instead of onstage."

"Yeah," Fiona sighed softly, her friend's softly stroking fingers soothing away the headache that had been pounding dully at her temples all day. "It's just so freakin' annoying."

"Shh, it's okay," Danielle whispered, still stroking her friend's hair, keeping an eye on the shadowy figure as it crept out of the pipe. "The sooner you get better, the sooner you'll be able to dance again."

"Okay," Fiona mumbled and curled up on her side with her head still in Danielle's lap.

"Fi?" Danielle whispered softly. She leaned down and listened to her friend's breathing.

"Is she asleep?" Dakota whispered, staring worriedly down at the slim dancer.

"Yes," Danielle whispered back. "We'd better get her to bed."

"Okay," the tall dancer gently scooped Fiona up against his chest, surprised at how light she felt. "Lead on McDuff."

"Right this way," Danielle led him through the theater to the attached hotel and up to the room she and Fiona shared with Angela and Rebecca. When they reached it, Danielle pulled back the sheets on Fiona's bed. "You can set her down there," Dakota carefully set the woman on the clean sheets. He slipped her shoes off and tucked her in with great care. Danielle stepped back and watched as Dakota sat down on the edge of the bed next to Fiona's hip.

"Sleep well," he whispered, brushing her bangs off her forehead. "And get well soon," he pressed a light kiss to her forehead before standing and turning to the door. When he saw Danielle studying him with amused eyes, he shrugged and grinned sheepishly. She stepped aside to let him leave. After he had gone, Danielle studied her peacefully-sleeping friend, intrigue gleaming in her sea green eyes.

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