Chapter Text
Thinking back, it’s ironic how he — a veteran, EM doctor, specialized in finding patterns and noticing every little detail — didn’t catch Samira's little habit until someone pointed it out to him.
The first time he could remember — long before they even dated — Jack was walking in the parking lot after his shift when he saw Samira Mohan — then a third year resident — laying down next to a car.
“Dr. Mohan? Are you okay?”, his voice high with worry, he runs towards Samira to get a feel of her pulse.
Before he can get to her, Samira turns her head, and brings one finger to her lips, making a shushing motion. He slowly starts to calm down, but keep going into her direction to check in on her.
“What are you doing?”, he whispers while squatting near the intern, at the level of her midsection .
“There’s a scared cat under this car; I think it’s hurt. I’m trying to convince it to get out of there.”, she whispers back.
Jack’s knees complain as he lowers his body more to try to see the animal that had caught the young woman’s attention. And there it is; a small black cat, might not even be one full year old — not that he was much experience with cats, or any animal for that matter — with its big yellow eyes staring back at the both of them.
“I think I might have something that can help,” he pulls a half tuna sandwich from his backpack and puts it under the car — far enough to lull the cat, but close enough that they will be able to catch the creature.
It takes all of two minutes for the small cat to finally be in Samira’s arms, bundled up in one of Jack’s spare T-shirts that he lends so she avoids any scratches.
“Shhh, I know little guy, you’re scared, but we are going to take care of you,” she says while looking over the pet for any visible injuries. She then looks at Jack, “Thank you so much, Dr. Abbot”.
“Sure. Are you taking it home?”
“Yeah! But first we are going to call an uber to get us to a vet, right, little guy?”
“I can give you a ride”
“Oh! Are you sure it’s not going to be a bother?”, the cat is already calming down in her arms, its little paws toying with one loose curl of Samira’s hair.
“I’m sure. C’mon, my car is a little down there”
The Vet visit goes as expected; a small thorn removed from one of the cat’s pawn, a few vaccines and pamphlets on how to care for the pet.
“What do you think we should call her?”, oh yeah, they found out the cat isit’s actually a She.
“I’m not good at naming things.” Jack says.
“Oh c’mon Dr. Abbot, give it a try.”
“Kit? Black? Ninja?,” he says, trying to remember any cat appropriated names that he might have heard.
“Ninja, I like it.” she brings the cat closer to her face, “Hi Ninja! You can turn left at the next intersection.”
“Sure thing.”
Their little drive ended in front of Samira’s flat building. Jack is happy to notice she lives in a safe neighbourhood — he would be preoccupied with any resident living situation, he justifies — and that her building has cameras and a frontman.
“Nice building.”
“Yeah! I hit a jackpot on this one, my last place was a mess, and I had a terrible roommate. Now I have a good place all for myself”, she tries to get the cat — Ninja — out of the T-shirt, but with no success, “I’m sorry, seems like someone got literally too attached to your shirt.”
“No problem. You can keep it.”
“Thank you again, Dr. Abbot.”
“You can call me Jack, you know?”
“Okay Jack,” the way she says his name, testing the word, makes a chill run over his spine.
He watches her until
she goes
inside her building, and waits for two more minutes — just to be safe.