Room 324, Thursday Morning

[vanillajello]

Fire. There's someone on fire. But Kate can't see who it is until the figure turns around and it's her but not her but her and she's standing there and the flames lick up her arms and she's on fire but then it's Mitchell, wild-eyed with a fire inside, and it's Hannibal and the flames go from hot to cold from hot to cold in time with his eyes, and then it's Jack and Emma and Karla and Sebastien and David and Bod and Marshall and Max and Tara --

And then it's Annie, serene calm beautiful Annie like that time in the cellar, and everything stops for a single awful second as she smiles.

And then the flames swallow her up and there's nothing but the fire.

-----

Kate had been very, very glad to not wake up screaming. She had been very glad to wake up, period. Her subconscious was not the place to be right now, her dreams had made that abundantly clear. She'd had no trouble getting out of bed since she'd craved a cold shower to fully wake her up and make sure nothing lingered on.

After the shower, she'd changed her clothes, put on some music, opened the door, made her bed and then flopped down on it with a notebook to make plans for a third floor welcome she wasn't sure she'd even organize.

Saturday wasn't shaping up to be a day to be bubbly and welcoming.

[ooc: Open post, open door. ETA: I would like to call all Mitchell stuff NFB, please and thank you!]

Comments

[therewaslife]

Bod had a wide open day and no plans. He thought about heading into Atlantis to explore but before doing that, he stopped down a few floors and knocked on the frame of the door.

"Hullo," he said quietly, trying not to startle her.

[vanillajello]

Kate looked up from where she'd been doodling a row spirals along the edge of the page. That was totally productive.

"Hullo," she replied, trying to seem... neutral, at least. Not wanting to inflict her emo on him too much.

That wasn't going to last.

[therewaslife]

Bod could already tell there was something wrong just with that greeting alone. He frowned and crossed his arms, trying to get a read on what this was.

"Are you all right?" He didn't know if he expected truth or a lie there.

[vanillajello]

And Kate wasn't sure which one to give him. She hesitated for a moment, then landed on stalling.

"Could you close the door?"

[therewaslife]

Bod panicked for a moment, thinking this was going to be about them and he was about to lose her again. He couldn't help the residual trauma from the last time they'd broken up.

He stepped inside and shut the door, leaning back against it just in case. "Kate? What's wrong?"

[vanillajello]

Kate raised her eyebrows a little when he chose to stay by the door and didn't come closer.

"Why are you --?" Oh. Yeah, she had enough all that stored up to guess what he might be thinking. "It's not, it's not about us."

[therewaslife]

Bod nodded, embarrassed that he'd thought that before finally taking a few steps towards the bed. "What's the matter that the door needs to be closed?"

[vanillajello]

"Can't stuff just be private?" Kate hedged, pushing herself into a more upright position before putting the notebook away.

[therewaslife]

"...should I even be here?" Bod asked hesitantly, stopping his track over to her. "If it's private, I don't want you to feel like you have to tell me."

[vanillajello]

Kate shook her head and beckoned him closer. "Come here and lay down."

[therewaslife]

Bod finally did make his way over quietly, settling down beside her and propping himself up against the headboard. He glanced over at her and smiled slightly.

[vanillajello]

Kate moved to lean against him and rest her head against his chest. "So," she started, "Mitchell called me at work yesterday."

[therewaslife]

"All right," Bod said slowly, starting to wonder if Mitchell ever brought good news with him. It didn't seem like it.

[bitten_notshy]

After Mitchell's phone call wrecked the little focus Jack had to begin with, he closed out the file he'd been halfheartedly taking notes in and stared at his phone for a long moment before dialing Kate's number. Odds were, she had heard; if she hadn't ... well, he'd get to that if it came up.

Ring, ring

[vanillajello]

And Kate could guess what this was about as soon as she saw the name on the screen. Like yesterday, she hesitated before picking the call up, but eventually did.

"Hello?"

[bitten_notshy]

Words weren't exactly coming to Jack easily just then. He was angry -- at what exactly, he wasn't sure -- and sad and mostly confused.

"Hi. So," he said, with bleak black humor that might reveal how close he was to tossing this whole thing, "I suppose the good news is that I finally heard from Mitchell."

[vanillajello]

"Yeah, and that's where the good news ends," Kate replied dryly. And a little tired. "He called me yesterday."

[bitten_notshy]

"Me today," Jack said, saving the then why you didn't call me for another time, when picking a fight might have some appeal. "Did he tell you several very sad things that made very little sense, and then promise details on Saturday?"

[vanillajello]

If she'd had the energy, Kate would've snorted at that, wryly amused. It was an exactly how it had gone.

Well, except for a minor details.

"Yes, except George did most of the telling," she said. "Mitchell just promised the Saturday."

[bitten_notshy]

"Apparently he was up to telling me himself," Jack shrugged, uncertain if that was good or bad. "How did George sound? I didn't ask about him."

[vanillajello]

"Like George?" Kate offered. She thought they both knew what that meant. "Angry. For a good reason, by the sound of it."

But weren't they all? Apart from Mitchell.

[bitten_notshy]

Like George wasn't bad; at least he hadn't gone on some werewolf revenge killing spree. (Not that Jack had ever heard of such a thing -- or that the moon was even full -- but he wouldn't have been at all surprised to find out they existed. It had been that kind of year.)

"No kidding," Jack agreed. "How do you not notice your girlfriend wants to hurt you? It's an insane story, from the little he said."

[vanillajello]

Kate sighed and rubbed one of her temples. "It's Mitchell, Jack," she replied. "Don't you kinda think he does really shittily with women in general?"

Just look at Lauren.

"Isn't insane kind of expected at this point?"

[bitten_notshy]

Oh, great. Ask the paragon of healthy relationships that was Jack Priest.

"Not the kind of insane that leads to Annie being -- gone," Jack said, indignant. "... no, wait, that sounds about right. I'm just tired of all of it. Poor Annie."

[vanillajello]

"Yeah, I know," Kate sighed. It felt pointless to say, and she had a hard time coming up with anything of worth to add. "Exorcized. Jesus Christ."

That was nice and blasphemous and ironic.