Barbara sighed and stared at the clock forlornly. It had been two hours since Dick called her to let her know that he might not be able to make it due to an abrupt increase in the crime rate because of the holidays. It had been an hour since he was supposed to have arrived and she was feeling depressed.

‘I suppose I should have expected this,’ she mentally sighed as she stared blankly at the computer screen.

She then half-heartedly restarted her search for some information that Superman had requested that she look for earlier in the day even though her thoughts were elsewhere.

After a half-hour, she cocked her head, frowning. ‘Did I hear something meow?’

After listening for a few more minutes, she decided that she was imagining things due to being over worked, took off her glasses, rubbed her eyes, and concentrated on her task once more.

Her work was interrupted (again) when a hand clad in a familiar black and blue glove clapped itself over her eyes.

“Guess who,” a familiar voice said in a teasing tone.

“Dick!” she exclaimed, twisting around, her work forgotten.

“I thought you weren’t coming!”

“Oh ye of little faith,” Dick said, shaking his head in mock sadness.

“Here’s some of the reason I was late,” he continued, holding out a kitten with the hand he had hidden behind his back. “The poor thing was half-starved and abandoned before I caught it, gave it some milk, and brought it here.”

Enchanted, Barbara took the kitten and settled it on her lap where it immediately curled up to sleep.

“This explains why I thought I heard something meow earlier...”

After a moment of thought, Barbara wheeled away.

“Babs, where are you going?”

“I’m looking for something for the kitten to sleep in.”

After finding a decent sized box that she had Dick get for her, she took it and some clean rags to the bathroom. She then selected a spot where the box would be out of the way, put in the rags, then put down the box on it’s side, making sure she didn‘t lean over too far. Barbara then put down the kitten next to the box. The kitten took the hint and walked in, tail in the air.

“I think it’s safe to call it a girl,” Dick commented as they exited the bathroom, closing the door behind them.

“Yep. I’ll go give her some food and water later. It’s too bad about her being a girl. If she was a boy, I could have named her Damn Fine,” Barbara said with a straight face.

Dick blushed, remembering the recent incident in which a group of assorted women named his behind Damn Fine. He made the mistake of telling Barbara about it which resulted in her needling him about it every now and then. His ruminations were interrupted by Barbara muttering to herself.

“Maybe I’ll name her Kat. Of course there’s always Amanda, Charlene, Marcie, Preetha, Noel, Sarah, Kerrie, Chicago, Rose, A.j., or Melodie...” she mused.

“How about Stripes?” Dick offered. His suggestion was met with a withering look.

“I’m not about to inflict that on the cat.”

“Why? What’s wrong with it?” Dick asked, looking affronted. He also remembered to take off his mask right about then.

Barbara took a moment to shake her head at the display of male denseness.

“That name is hardly dignified,” she informed him.

“Oh yeah?”

After some (okay, a lot) of good-natured bickering about Dick’s taste in names for cats, and a trip to leave food and water for said pet, Barbara and Dick parked themselves on the couch to watch a Christmas movie that was on. After an hour, the program was interrupted by a news flash.

“Citizens of the greater Gotham area are advised to stay home tonight due to a blizzard headed this way from the west. I repeat, everyone should stay home tonight. We’ll now return you to your regularly scheduled program.”

Dick looked at Barbara. “Looks like it’s a good thing I brought an extra set of clothes.”

“Mmm,” Barbara agreed, snuggling closer to Dick’s chest.

‘Looks like Oracle is staying offline tonight,’ she thought contently.