Stay This Little

Part Four: I Can Go Anywhere I Want, Just Not Home

(Taylor's POV)

"Taylor!"

My eyes snapped open, and I burst out of the pantry.

"Alison?"

I rushed back into the living room, and my gaze swept quickly over the room. I noticed Greg had brought her two boxes in and set them beside the front entryway, but everything else looked the same. Overall, I didn't immediately see any cause for alarm, and my heart rate began to slow back down.

"What's wrong, baby?"

The term of endearment slipped off my tongue without a thought. My only concern was making sure she was alright.

"Dibbles squeaked!" Her blue eyes were wide as she stared down at the little cat. "I swear I was petting her really carefully, but when I stopped she squeaked at me! Is she okay? Did I hurt her?"

I would've laughed, but the earnest worry on her little face was so endearing that it made my heart melt. It felt like my eyes just turned into hearts as I looked at her expression.

"She's fine, honey. She meowed at you because she liked it when you were petting her, and she wanted you to keep doing it," I explained.

I walked over and sat beside her. I reached out and stroked my fingers gently down Olivia's back for a moment. When I stopped, she let out that same squeaky little meow, and I laughed.

"But why doesn't she meow like a regular cat? It sounds like she's hurt." Alison pouted.

"It's just because she's still a baby," I explained. "Once she gets bigger, her meow won't sound so high-pitched anymore. Meredith sounded almost just like that when she was a kitten."

"Oh, okay." She sounded relieved. "Taylor?"

I raised my eyebrow playfully.

"Yes?"

"Can I see the rest of the apartment now?" Her face lit up with excitement.

"Absolutely." I grinned, and then glanced at the clock. "After that, I'll start making your dinner."

"Okay!" She jumped up. "What's first?"

I couldn't wipe the joyful smile from my face as I led Alison around the apartment, showing her everything from the kitchen to my music room. Finally, I showed her up to the bedrooms.

"So, this," I pushed the door open as I spoke, "is my room. If you ever need anything in the middle of the night, or you have a bad dream, or you wake up before me and are ready for me to make you breakfast, you can always come and wake me up. Okay?"

I smiled down at her kindly, but she looked a little teary-eyed. My smile melted into a concerned frown, and I kneeled down to look into her eyes.

"What's wrong, Ali?"

"Well," she looked down shyly, "are you sure you won't mind? What if you're really tired, and I wake you up? I've never gotten to wake someone up if I had a bad dream before," Alison said honestly, looking back up to hesitantly meet my gaze.

"Alison." I reached out and gave her hand a squeeze. "I won't ever mind if you need to wake me up, no matter what the reason is or how tired I might be. It doesn't matter if I've been asleep for five hours or five minutes. You can always come to me if you need me, okay?"

"Do you pinkie promise?"

I grinned at her solemn expression, and linked my pinkie finger with hers.

"Pinkie promise," I swore. "Now, do you want to see where your room will be?"

She perked up and nodded excitedly. I led her down the hall to one of the rooms across from mine, and opened the door for her. It used to be a guest room, but as soon as I'd finalized my plans to move ahead with the adoption, I'd had all the furniture except the bed removed.