From the School to the Arms Hotel, Sunday Evening

[vanillajello]

One moment, Kate was standing in the school with a knife in her hand, practically wishing the last few Loyalists would come at her so she could hurt some more people, like that'd help her.

The next, the knife was gone and it was a very different Kate standing in that exact same spot.

And then she was off and running, scrambling her way out of the school and out the gates and making some kind of a personal record with the way she ran through town to the hotel. They'd had a hotel room, see, her and Bod, before this whole thing had started. And he had to be there. He had to be there.

She ended up repeatedly slamming her fist against the hotel room door once she got there. "Bod? Bod!"

[ooc: Just for the guy about to get cried on!]

Comments

[vanillajello]

Kate was pretty much already reaching for it when he came back into the room. "Thanks." She was kind of frantic in her efforts to call her brother, so it took longer than usual before she managed to raise the phone to her ear.

And when she did, she also reached out to take his hand because she needed to.

[therewaslife]

Bod laced his fingers with hers and squeezed her hand. He was quiet but he was there, waiting to see what happened with the telephone call.

[vanillajello]

Thankfully, nothing too dramatic. Marshall picked up soon enough, and while it sounded a bit like he was a little concerned about Kate sounding as teary as she did, things were fine.

"Yeah, we'll be back, like... Tomorrow. Okay. Yeah. Love yooou, bye." She hung up before he could be more weirded out at her. "Oh thank Christ, he just thought it was some random Fandom thing."

[therewaslife]

Bod reached over to take the phone from her and tossed it onto the couch that was nearby. He tried a very, very soft smile at her.

"Good," he said, nodding. "Did you want to eat anything? Would you like to sit down with me?"

[vanillajello]

"I could eat?" Kate hazarded. Keeping kind of a firm hold on his hand, like he might disappear. "Food situation in evil Fandom was... not great."

And there was that bit where she'd spent the last two days holding down the fort at the school, barely eating or sleeping.

[therewaslife]

"I'll order room service for us," Bod said, keeping a hold of her hand while he walked over to the phone. "Anything you have a particular taste for?"

[vanillajello]

"Not really," she said, then reconsidered. "Well. Pudding, if they have any."

Even if saying that came with a sideorder of chewing on her lip again as memories came back sharper.

[therewaslife]

"I'll get you pudding," he said, pulling her closer to him and sliding his arm around her waist. "I'll get you all the pudding you want, Kate. It's all right. It's all right."

[vanillajello]

"Luke got me pudding," Kate murmured, leaning into him. "We didn't even have, like, a permanent place to stay and we were just scavenging, but he still got me fucking pudding." She breathed in, a little unsteady. It was so easy to get overwhelmed. "And then... He got killed."

[therewaslife]

"I'm sorry," Bod murmured, pressing his lips against her forehead. "Breathe, Kate. Breathe. Luke's alive and I'm alive and you're all right. Breathe."

[vanillajello]

She was trying her best to do just that. "I was so -- I don't think I've ever been that, like, that sad and furious. Ever."

She hoped she never would be, either.

[therewaslife]

"It was an awful thing to experience," Bod said quietly, nodding and holding her close to him. "Awful. But, it's gone now. It's gone and I'm not going anywhere."

[vanillajello]

Kate sighed and nuzzled his shoulder a little.

"Good," she murmured. "You're not allowed to leave me anymore."

[therewaslife]

"I'm not leaving you," Bod told her firmly. "I'm not. You've got my ring on your finger and you've got my heart. I'm not going anywhere."

[vanillajello]

"Good," Kate repeated, quietly. "Because I know how much that hurts, now. If it's at all possible to avoid feeling like that..."

She'd rather stay away from that feeling, yeah.

[therewaslife]

"You know I'd never leave you voluntarily," Bod murmured and kissed her forehead. "You know that. I'm never going to leave you."

[vanillajello]

"I know." There it was again. "I know. But I felt so alone, you know? And I mean, I wasn't even alone. Luke was there ––" For a while, anyway. "–– and Hannibal, and this chick Ace was making explosives in the basement..."

[therewaslife]

"I know you did, Kate, I know," he soothed, nodding. "I've felt like that. I've felt so completely alone despite having friends around that cared about me. It's an awful feeling because you know you shouldn't feel like that but you do anyway and you can't seem to change it."

[vanillajello]

Kate clung to him some more. Clinging was going to be a Thing for a while.

"I love you," she muttered.

[therewaslife]

"I know you do," he murmured, rubbing her back and soothing her further. "I love you too. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going to leave you."

[vanillajello]

"Good. Good." She buried her face against his neck. "I'm so tired. I barely slept, the last two days. Too busy... guarding."

[therewaslife]

"Do you want to lay down?" Bod asked her, still rubbing her back and using soothing noises to calm her down. "Do you think you could sleep?"

[vanillajello]

"Maybe?"

She honestly didn't know, with the way she was feeling. But she thought she might try. The thought seemed appealing.

He wasn't going to be allowed to leave her side, though.

[therewaslife]

"Would you like to try?" Bod asked quietly. "Or did you want to eat first?"

He'd gotten distracted with comforting her and forgotten about food.

[vanillajello]

"I could maybe eat a little bit, first?" Kate offered. She wasn't sure why everything was a question but she'd had a long week. A really, really long week. "Probably need a snack."