Somewhere in England, Thursday

[vanillajello]

Portalocity hubs at airports were a dangerous thing if you were someone who tended to succumb to strong whims. Like Kate, for example. The day was already growing darker in England when the portal dropped her off, not too far from the destination of this particular whim. She had to check with a random passerby that she was going in the right direction, but it didn't take her long to get where she was going.

Bod's graveyard.

She made her way through the gates, taking in her surroundings. She'd only been here once before, but it wasn't hard to find the headstones she was looking for. Mr and Miss Owens. Parents to one Nobody Owens, not that that was inscribed anywhere, under neither of their names. No wonder. He'd shown up years and years and years after their deaths. Such was the beauty of this place.

Kate drew in a breath and gave the headstones an awkward little wave. "Hi." Well, this didn't feel silly at all. "I'm –– well, you know who I am. I mean, if there's even anyone listening. I don't know, maybe you're all too busy with, uh, um, whatever it is that ghosts spend their time on. But, you know, I wanted to come anyway." She paused, and chewed on her lip a little, looking down at her feet. "See, I've kinda been thinking about this place a lot, lately. About... everyone. And how Bod grew up. Because..." Because what? She wasn't sure she was that clear on that, herself. "Because, I guess, we're not so hugely different, Bod and me. I mean, yeah, we grew up different, but... But... There's this thing about family."

She sniffed, and frowned at herself. "I don't know how much Bod's actually said about my family? I mean, the Gregsons. That family. I don't really mean that one right now, that's a whole different mess altogether. But I have these friends, you see, these friends called Mitchell and Jack. And we're... crazy close. Like, we started out with Mitchell just being my teacher and Jack just being this guy from class, but a lot of crazy sh-- stuff happened and before I knew it, I don't know, those two dudes became my go-to guys for when anything goes wrong. And I kinda drop everything to go help either of them, if they want my help. Or even if they don't. We're... It feels corny to say, but they're family." They so were. She'd rarely said it out loud but it was true. "Annnd you're probably wondering what the point is, I mean, how is that anything like growing up with dead people? Well, Mitchell's a vampire. Has been the entire time I've known him even though it took a few months before anyone told me. But he's also my best friend. He's the guy I ––"

She cut herself off there, because this was kind of what you didn't bring up with your boyfriend's parents, even if they couldn't be seen giving you disapproving looks.

Then she decided to say it anyway. "When Bod and I broke up, Mitchell's the guy I went to. Just so you get what I mean by best friend. I know what he is, and I've seen some really really horrendously bad stuff happen because of it, and I know he struggles with it all the time. But I trust him. He's my dorky Irish hipster friend all the same. But..."

She found herself lost for words, hesitating, pausing. She looked at the ground, then decided to sit down, to kneel in the snow. Just to do something while she figured out what she was saying. She was off-duty, and had changed clothes at the airport. Her jeans could take the snow better than her uniform would have.

She bit the inside of her cheek and shook her head at herself. This was such a ridiculous thing to be doing, but she felt like she just had to talk. "But Jack... He got attacked by a werewolf. And now he's probably gonna turn into one too and I, I don't know, I'm a little scared. I mean, not of him, I've met werewolves before. Mitchell lived –– lives with a couple of them. This is kinda really nothing new, but it's just so... My family's turning into more and more like Bod's. Vampires, werewolves, and ––"

And Annie. And this was something she hadn't told anyone yet, hadn't said a word about it, and it was a heavy feeling inside her chest. The breath she drew in was shuddering, maybe because of the cool air, maybe because of something else.

"I had this friend. Annie. Lived with Mitchell. Pretty and lively and obsessive tea-maker and kinda like a sister to me whenever I went around there, let me sleep in her bed or whatever. And she was a ghost. Yeah. And then, she got exorcised. Except..." Her voice got quiter all on its own. "Mitchell says she's in purgatory. She's been trying to contact them. And it's just... It's unfair. She didn't even deserve to die, and she doesn't deserve this, and I'm not sure I'm handling it really well because there's just been so much shit lately, and I'm sorry for saying shit 'cause I know there are a lot of old-fashioned sensibilities around but it's the best word. I haven't even told Bod yet. Pretty sure it'll upset him even though he's never even met her. It should fucking upset everyone. And I can't even do anything because I'm just a girl and I hate it and I miss her."

She wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand, and sniffed a little.

"I'm sorry for coming here to ramble," she told the headstones, looking up at them, after a moment's pause. "Guess I just had to come to the most ghost-friendly place I know, even though I know there's no way she'd end up here even though I would really like her to. Stupid multiverse. And... I don't know. You raised the best thing in my life. I don't know how much sympathy you have for me because I know I was really bad to him for a while there but I hope you can see past that because, well, he has." She glanced down, then held up her hand and the ring there. "He put a ring on it. It's not –– we're not getting married, it's just a promise. To stay together." She sighed, tried to will the stinging in her eyes to go away. "So yeah. I hope you don't mind. I'll just stay here for... a little while."

In the snowy silence of the graveyard.

[ooc: NFB, graveyard modded with nimeni's kind permission, and the post is just for that one person Kate should've expected to run into here.]

Comments

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

Silas tended to know when people were in the graveyard. It was an innate sense he had. So, when he got wind of this presence, he emerged from wherever he'd been tucked away and stood at a distance. He was in plain view but he was so quiet that Kate wasn't going to hear him until she looked around.

And while he was quiet, he listened. He listened to Kate speak and while his expression didn't change, his thoughts did. He hadn't heard all of it but he'd heard most of it and it was...interesting to know. He wouldn't have expected that from her.

So, he was quiet yet attentive while he watched her attentively.

[vanillajello]

Kate was still for a while, just listening to the undisturbed silence, looking at the gravestones in front of her, memorizing them. Thinking about Bod living in this place, though her thoughts tried to wander to darker things.

And then she glanced around, and she finally noticed Silas. She yelped, hand to her chest because her heart had just half stopped, and exclaimed, without thinking, "Holy shit!"

Well, good thing she'd already made a bad impression previously.

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

If Silas had been one to be amused, he might have laughed right there. He didn't though. He was pleased to have gotten a reaction out of her but he didn't show it.

Instead, he took a few silent steps closer to her. "Miss Gregson. I didn't expect to see you in a graveyard without the young lad with you. How surprising."

It was hard to tell if he was serious or not via tone alone. "Just visiting then?"

[vanillajello]

Kate scrambled to her feet, on instinct. She wasn't even sure whether it was to be prepared to run away, or just because it seemed disrespectful or something to stay on the ground.

"Uh, yeah," she said, once the initial shock had passed. Willing her heart to stop racing. "Silas. Hello."

Seriously, how had she not expected for him to show up?

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

"Hello," Silas said and did sound very slighty amused now. His path towards her stopped when he was just scant feet away. He glanced at her for a momenr longer before his attention turned to the gravestones.

"And how are the Owenses today?" he asked her idly.

[vanillajello]

Kate tried her hardest to gather her wits, breathing in. She shrugged a shoulder. "I wouldn't know. I don't have the Freedom of the Graveyard. But good, I hope."

It hadn't even occurred to her yet that he might have heard her talking to them.

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

Silas gave the gravestones the slightest of nods before he looked back at Kate. "I'm sure it's a bit difficult to ask them about your current situation without that freedom, isn't it?"

Well, that probably answered the question of if he'd heard her or not. "Mrs. Owens remembers you, if you were curious. She's nearby."

[vanillajello]

Well, shit. Of course he'd already been there for that. Of course. Kate's eyes widened again, alarmed though she wasn't sure why. Except that it was because this was all really personal and private and Silas really didn't belong into the category of people who she wanted to know those things.

"... How much did you hear?"

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

"Enough," Silas answered simply. He was quiet again and utterly still. "Visitors of the breathing quality do tend to attract attention. I just had to come see who was paying us a visit."

Silas was being surprisingly cordial, at least. Maybe he'd mellowed with time!

[vanillajello]

Yeah, Kate would take a while to believe that. He was very old, and very old people didn't change easily.

"It was private," she said, futilely, without anger. Mostly, she felt embarrassed. "You weren't supposed to hear."

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

"You're in the graveyard I've lived in for a very long time talking to the parents of the boy I helped raise and I'm not supposed to hear?" Silas questioned.

"It seems to me that Nobody's the one that's supposed to not here even if I'm positive he could relate since you were right in saying this new family of yours is similar to his."

[vanillajello]

"I'm gonna tell him," Kate replied, and let the folding of her arms be the only thing that read as defensive about her.

She looked at the headstones again, suddenly aware that there was still the glimmering of tears in her eyes though she hadn't quite been crying. "I just wanted to tell someone else first."

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

"They understand," Silas said quietly. "They both do. Did Bod ever tell you of the werewolf he knew?"

Look at Silas behaving in front of his ward's ghostly parents and girlfriend. He was trying.

[vanillajello]

"The Romanian lady with the horrible food?" she asked, though she knew that was the one. There was just the one. "Yeah."

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

"Yes, Miss Lupescu," Silas said, nodding. He remembered the lady very well and did miss her at times. He didn't breathe so he couldn't sigh. "What about your new situation is upsetting you?"

[vanillajello]

Kate could sigh for both of them. "Everything? Things used to be semi-normal, once, you know. But they keep getting worse."

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

"Why is this worse?" Silas asked her. "It's worse because it's not normal? Normal is suba subjective term anyway. What do yo define as normal anyway?"

[vanillajello]

"Being a werewolf is a curse," Kate replied, with a flick of her gaze towards him. "I mean, I don't know if it was like that for Miss Lupescu, but I've seen people try living with it before. It's hard."

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

"And Bod, who is neither werewolf nor normal, hasn't ever had a difficult time?" Silas asked, looking over at her. "You don't have to be cursed to have a hard time."

[vanillajello]

Kate raised an eyebrow, but kept her tone mild. "Thank you, Silas, for that entirely new information. As someone who hasn't ever been cursed with anything but a crazy mother and friends who take the revolving door approach to death, I couldn't possibly have known that."

... Yeah, she couldn't stop the snark. She wrinkled her nose. "It's not really about Bod."

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

"I didn't think it was," Silas said mildly. "That statement was merely a suggestion that he'd understand if you were to tell him. But, if it's not about the lad, what is it about? From past interactions, you seemed to imply that you know everything."

He could snark too.

[vanillajello]

"From past interactions, you're a jerk," Kate retorted evenly. So there. "And I always knew more than you gave me credit for. Doesn't mean I'm finding this easy to deal with."

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

"Wouldn't that make you a jerk as well?" Silas asked, raising an eyebrow. "I seem to recall past instances of that."

He paused and let the silence lengthen. "What's causing you so much distress about this new development?"

[vanillajello]

Kate shook her head, then shrugged. "I don't know," she admitted. "Guess I thought some people were... untouchable, you know?"

She'd kind of thought she and Jack would always be on the outside of the worst of it. Just at the fringes, not in the thick of it, no matter how crazy things got. That they'd be the two regular flavor mortals, hanging on for dear life.

Guess she'd thought wrong.

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

"No one is untouchable, Miss Gregson," Silas said neutrally. "Those that think are fooling themselves. The darkness of the world touches everyone from the largest to the smallest."

It was safe to think he was thinking of Bod there. "The measure of a person is how they bdeal with the adversity."