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

[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."

[vanillajello]

"You are not the greatest at being reassuring, Silas," Kate drawled, rolling her eyes. Not that she'd been looking for reassurance. Certainly not from him. "And I don't know how well I'm dealing with this... 'adversity'."

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

"I'm not trying to be reassuring," Silas said, shaking his head. "I'm not here to reassure you. Have you gone and gotten yourself arrested yet?"

[vanillajello]

"Not lately," she replied, dryly, and tried not to think about the only time in her life she'd nearly been arrested.

(For acting as an accomplice to a vampire the police were blaming for murders he hadn't committed. Good times.)

"But I'm sure there was a different kind of point to that question."

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

"I was just going to commend you for being smarter than Nobody if you hadn't," Silas said dryly, like he was almost joking. "That's what he did at one point. Anyway, everyone reacts differently, Miss Gregson. What makes you think yu're not dealing well with this? You've come to talk to someone , at least."

[vanillajello]

"Well, I usually don't," she said, eyes on the gravestones again. "Feels like it, anyway. I mean, this stuff usually involves keeping a lot of secrets."

And when it came to some people and some things, she was loyal to a fault.

"I've just had a rocky year, and I'm not... mentally built for this."

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

"So give up," Silas said, not sounding like it mattered to him that much. "Obviously you're the first person to ever deal with hardship so give up and feel sorry for yourself. I'm sure that's going to be quite the beneficial decision in the long run."

[vanillajello]

Kate's jaw tightened as she bit back on her initial reaction of lashing out with profanity. To be honest, it was out of respect for pretty much everyone but him.

She stared hard at the headstones. "If you're just going to mock me, you might as well leave me alone."

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

Silas wasn't going to apologize for what he felt had been needed honesty. She'd have to come to terms with that herself.

"I don't mock," he replied with the slightest shake of his head. "You are acting like this is the end of the world and I merely pointed out the folly of that thinking. You mention that you're not built for this? It sounds like it's too late for that now. How is focusing on your issues going to aid your friend?"

[vanillajello]

"Don't lecture me, Silas," Kate replied, as coolly as she could. "You asked me why I thought I'm not handling this well, and I answered."

She shook her head, and tried to be discrete about wiping the back of her hand across her eyes again. "Do you even get why I came here, when I could have gone anywhere in the entire multiverse?"

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

"It's a similar situation," Silas answered casually. "Perhaps you came here looking for answers from a place that once gave those answers to someone else you know. Miss Gregson, it's not a terrible plan."

See, Silas had some compliments inside him.

[vanillajello]

Kate thought they still required some work, but her voice held slightly less of the threat of boiling over soon than it had just before.

"I didn't come for answers, I came here to breathe," she said. "But it is about Bod, you're not wrong about that. Because after this I need to go home to my aunt's and act like nothing's wrong. And after that, I know I'll keep being everyone's anchor to humanity, because that's what I do. And Bod's my anchor." She sighed, quietly. "And because this is where he grew up into a guy who can fill that role, I'm here. For a time out."

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

"When is the last time you've seen Nobody?" Silas asked after a moment of quiet. "It sounds like you might need to see him just to get a bit balanced."

[vanillajello]

"Last week," Kate replied. Mildly. "Sometimes that's a longer time than you'd think."

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

"I wasn't going to suggest otherwise," Silas remarked. Mildly. "I was going to tell you to go see him. I miss him as well and it's been much longer than a week for me."

[vanillajello]

Kate glanced over at him, but only briefly. "I'm sure he misses you too." That was usually how it went with family. "Shouldn't be a stranger. Never know what's right around the corner."

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

"It's not as easy for you as it is for me," Silas said, shaking his head. "He's a good lad with a good head on his shoulders and he needs to use that instead of clinging to his past."

[vanillajello]

"Uh, you're the only family he has left that he can actually talk to," Kate replied, now giving him a slightly raised eyebrow. "And he's not clinging to his past. Not more than everyone else is, anyway."

[undeadguardian.livejournal.com]

"And what are the odds, do you think, that if I'm around more that he'll want to come with me on my travels?" Silas asked, voicing his concern to her for some reason. "Do you know what I do, Miss Gregson?"

[vanillajello]

She sighed and shrugged a shoulder. "Whatever it is that grumpy old vampires do." Other than run clubs on weird islands. Except Eric wasn't that grumpy. "But I would put money on it having to do with secret orders of crazy people."