Title: Familiar
Fandom: Bad Sisters
Characters: Eva, Ursula, Bibi, and Becka Garvey, with a mention of Grace.
Rating: T
Length: 1646 words
Warnings: Brief mentions of past animal cruelty.
Notes; Post-s2, assume Ursula moved back in with Eva. Also, hi again, long time no see :)
Summary: A four-legged addition to the Garvey household tickles the sisters’ memories in ways both complicated and fond.

Bibi Garvey made no effort to announce her arrival at Eva’s house. It was her home too, theirs; neither she nor her sisters could be formal about it if they tried.

Moreover, she didn’t really need to make herself known after Becka’s voice all but introduced her the second Bibi stomped her way in, a coincidence.

“Does Bibi know?”

“What am I supposed to know?” Bibi asked without hesitation as she crossed into the living room and startled both Becka and Ursula.

Her youngest sister sprang to her feet from where she was sat on the floor; her older sister put a hand to her own racing heart and shuffled a little closer as if to block Bibi’s view from something.

“Jesus Christ!” Urs exclaimed, proceeding to take a breath before going on, half-smiling, half-grimacing. “You’re here.”

“Yeah, I thought we were doing game night.”

“We are but it’s a bit early, isn’t it?”

“Becka’s standing right behind you and it doesn’t seem to bother you that she’s already here.”

Maybe because Becka wasn’t talking to or paying any attention to either of them.

Bibi glanced in the same direction Becka constantly checked, as if expecting something to come out from underneath the furniture. Ursula, too, couldn’t help looking.

“Okay, what am I missing here?” Bibi demanded.

“She’s so cute, Bibi”, Becka promised without revealing anything.

“Eva wanted to wait and show you when we were all together tonight,” Ursula explained also without explaining. “You weren’t supposed to arrive before she did.”

“Show us what?” Bibi insisted.

And that was when she heard a faint meow come from the corner of the room Becka had been surveying.

“She’s very shy. I haven’t even been able to get a good look at her, much less pet her,” Becka said.

“A cat? You made this circus just because Eva got a cat?” Bibi deflated a little, wholly unimpressed and unappreciative of the excess secrecy. “Wasn’t there enough old pussy for you here now that you moved back in, Ursula?”

“Oh, fuck off,” was her reply, given alongside an amused snort courtesy of Becka.

“I thought it was something serious,” Bibi went on, annoyed, dropping herself down on the couch. Her expression slowly changed from disdain to a hint of mischief. “Then again, where I come from we have a word for two women deciding to move in together and get a cat. Aren’t there any other confessions you might want to make, Urs? I’m all ears.”

Ursula glared at her. Becka laughed some more, though much more invested in trying to coax the animal out of its hiding place by clicking her tongue or calling to it in a high tone as if it were a baby than she was in mocking her sibling.

A black shadow suddenly darted through the room faster than anyone could keep up with, finding some refuge in between Ursula’s legs.

“Why her? Come on, I’ve been the one trying to get your attention,” Becka whined at the cat, coming closer and only managing to scare it again without even getting a good glimpse of its face.

“Give her time, Becka,” Urs recommended, though she did so while looking sideways at Bibi. “She hasn’t had the easiest life…”

They hadn’t heard the door but Eva’s voice rang out as she entered at that very moment.

“Urs? Will you help get these? I might or might not have bought half the store. Figured we can’t tell beforehand which toys it’ll like more than others so I just got a lot at once…”

Ursula rushed towards Eva, who came in carrying a whole bunch of things between scratch-posts, a handful of cat food and other assorted items. Becka followed the cat still and stopped when Bibi felt something bump into her shin and stay there. She looked down.

“I left Bla with Molly and the others—”

“They’re both here,” Ursula interrupted their eldest sister, relieving her of most of her purchases and setting them near.

Eva walked into the living room the moment Bibi looked back up.

“It was supposed to be a better surprise than this,” Eva said, a little awkwardly.

Bibi glanced down at the little creature hiding behind her leg again. The cat noticed her and looked up to meet her gaze.

It was already an adult, black all over, and its clean, short fur couldn’t fully hide the scars it bore. What most intrigued Bibi, however, was how only a single bright green eye met her own, bold and hopeful as it hadn’t dared to be while Becka had tried to call it closer. Something had happened to the cat’s right eye in whatever troubled past Ursula had alluded to and now it was no more — just like Bibi’s.

She sat back and studied her sisters, who all seemed to hold their breath at her reaction.

“What? Did you think the one-eyed woman would be angry that you adopted a one-eyed cat?”

“We weren’t going to—”

“Who’s ‘we’? This was your idea,” a nervous Ursula cut Eva.

“—but she was just too cute,” Eva went on, ignoring the interruption, “and no one else had taken her in after quite some time while all the other animals at the shelter were waiting less than a week for someone to pick them up. It was like she called to us.”

“Saint Eva,” Bibi diagnosed, not wholly derisive.

“Have you given her a name yet?” Becka asked.

Ursula shrugged. “We were going to wait and see if Blánaid wanted to suggest anything.”

“Just don’t call it Bibi,” the human Bibi croaked.

“You could call her Bridget instead,” Becka offered with a grin, earning her a flip of the finger on Bibi’s part.

They watched the feline creep up to Eva and rub itself against her, then do the same to Ursula and circle back to Bibi, to Becka’s utter dismay.

“How is that fair?” she complained again, sitting beside Bibi on the couch, who observed with evident restraint.

“Half an hour you’ve been badgering her for attention,” Urs scolded her with a laugh. “You can’t just ask to be loved, Becka.”

Eva came closer to where they were sat, at Bibi’s side, aware of how keenly she examined the cat leaning over her foot.

“I know it’s silly but… Are you really alright with this?” Eva inquired in a low voice.

Bibi shot her a feeble little smile. “Yeah. What happened to her?”

“You’d think the superstition against black cats wouldn’t have made it to this day and age, but… Some people are really stupid.”

Bibi scoffed in agreement. Ignorance and prejudice over something you can’t help… She knew a thing or two about that herself. Maybe they were more similar than they seemed, she and the cat.

All quieted down when the sound of contented purring rose low but certain from where the new member of the family was.

“I think she liked you best of all, Bibi.”

“God, why?!”

Bibi laughed at her younger sister’s disappointment, reaching down to carefully pick up the animal and let it nestle itself in her arms, now appearing very relaxed. “You know why.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, don’t say it.”

Bibi smirked while scratching in between the cat’s ears. “Queen of pussy.”

Not a single Garvey except herself passed on groaning at that.

“You literally married your college sweetheart,” Eva stated. “You didn’t exactly sleep around to be deemed the queen of pussy, did you?”

“Urs and Becka did but the kitty still chose me,” Bibi remarked, promptly receiving a “fuck you” and an “up yours” from the concerned siblings.

“Well, maybe I should embrace my crazy cat lady spinster persona and get one cat for each of you. Independent as they are, they’d still probably listen to me more than you lot ever did,” Eva joked.

That unleashed a slew of comments on what kind of cat would suit who. The sisters could not agree on much, suggesting colours or types that none of the others approved. Tabby, Persian, Sphynx, all manner of felines were brought forth and dismissed just as quickly while the sweet, black one-eyed specimen that so well matched Bibi dozed off on her lap… Until they got to Grace.

“All white,” Bibi said.

“With big, expressive round eyes,” Ursula added.

“Making art without even realising it, leaving paw prints all around,” Becka joined with a smile.

“And a proud owner of the most delicate mews known to woman even after it got older,” Eva rounded off the list.

Imagining it made them thoughtful. Grace had loved that kitten Eva and Bibi had once given her and Blánaid; much like the event that took her own life, none of them believed for a second that Grace had been the cause of the accident that led to its death. Considering JP had still been around, they knew better even as they had no real way of knowing.

But they could see it clearly — Grace playing with the black “Bibi” cat now, or her giggling a bit awkwardly if they ever did find her animal counterpart as they had described just now and put it in her hands, happy as she so deserved to have been…

A second more of silence might have pushed them to tears. Luckily, the cat on Bibi’s lap woke from its nap and made its careful way onto Becka’s thighs, almost as if it wished to take her mind off her sadness by begging for a scratch or two.

Bibi had certainly wished to cheer her up as well as the rest of them. Her heart swelled at seeing her little sister (always her little sister no matter how many years passed) smile wide at finally being greeted, then at how Eva and Ursula also melted at that unexpected, welcome scene.

Yes, she was home… They were home, indeed.