#warehouse 12

He didn’t think about it much until he met the human time traveler during his time as a mouser in the Warehouse. Not the famous one who wrote books with her brother, she would come later, but the one who met the people from the future.

Technically she didn’t travel through herself but the impression she got was a good one. His species and his family were still around. Even if they had those extra lives his aunties had warned about.

From what he, well now she, could remember is that humans moving through time could be real. And at this Warehouse, someone was actually trying to make it happen. Her(his) family had somehow been coopeted to be a part of this totally human system, which was better that the streets, of collecting objects that meant something to them. Or could be dangerous. These Agents, as they called themselves, would take care of the family line. No tossing in the river. No bait for dog fights. Consistent food, a comfortable bed, and a head scratch or two. Not a bad life.

But this time traveler was in trouble. She knew the grief of lost young and even though this human didn’t want to talk about it, a mother knew. This human was doing too much and it was dangerous for all of them. But grief had made many an agent crazy. And as she died during an experiment gone wrong all she could do was forgive and hope for another life to see what happened next.

Dickens remembered it all. Marrakesh. His Auntie Smarty. The Warehouses. His painful death along with a human or two.  He and his family had been through a lot since the Caretaker of Warehouse 3 had scooped up an ancestor or two as a pet. He didn’t need a magical item to know that humans were fickle and volatile creatures. And that this century had been one of the worst.

A distant memory told him that his human Emily, really wasn’t her true self. A past self-remembered this woman and time travel not ending well for anyone. But the Warehouse wants what it wants. so here his was. She was nice and he could tell that she did care for him, but there was so much turmoil it was hard. Humans never did get the reincarnation thing like cats did so he could sympathize. She did do a good job of keeping the box clean and the water bowl full.

Dickens actually enjoyed his foster after Emily left. He met up with his cousins Buddy and Petey who were a hoot in their squabbing ways. It had been some time since he’d seen his liter mates and the jovial senior boys made his time entertaining. He could sense though that his time traveler was drifting and that she would need help finding her way home.

His cousins were well versed in the network and had helped their owner in several occasions. They were ready to help unrequited love see a happy ending. And it took all of his skills and their network to make it happen. Burr and Hamilton first got a lead on his former owner. Tinsel was able to find her love. Goal Kitty tracked down the time traveler when she was using a fake name in California and dating the wrong person. Frank and his brother Stein were able to get the intel to get them both together in the same city, with Potato making sure they met up with a wobbly assist from Phin.

And Fishtopeher, the genius that he was, helped them make the final connection.

Dickens curled up on the comfy reading chair to keep an eye of his humans, Myka and Helena. He’d put a lot of work, and lives, into making sure they found each other. A soul mate is nothing to snooze at.  His aunties had said that if his family or the cat network make the extraordinary happen that they might get a reprieve but he had grown to love the Warehouse and it’s ways.