I'm not a hardship. I'm awesome.

Kate had been planning to go out today, to go into town. But then there was that fucking blizzard and she stayed in her room instead, fully dressed and curled up in a nest of blankets on her bed. Still not up to socializing.

The confusion was starting to fade. She'd admitted how close Jason had got, and how much she'd started to care. But getting this clear in her head didn't make the pain start to fade, too; no, in fact, it had just gotten that little bit sharper, and she knew it would remain for a long time.

Even so, there was a voice in some part of her mind, the voice of reason, and it was getting louder. And its message? Pretty much 'for crissake Kate, jest get on with your life'.

Some people would've seen it as ironic that the voice of reason sounded a lot like Jason. Kate wasn't one of those people. She knew he would’ve been the first to tell her to snap out of it, to stop closing herself off.

And any time now, she was going to take the voice's advice. But not quite yet.

She had her iPod on for company and distraction. Some sappy song was playing. She didn't even know how it had ended up in her player. It had probably been part of some fanmix she'd downloaded at some point and forgotten about.

She didn't want to listen to it. Didn't want to do what it was telling her to do. She fought against the feelings it was bringing up.

But she didn't change the song.

And then the iPod's battery died, and something inside her just cracked, and she was left in the cold silence with tears streaming down her face.


[ooc: And thus begins the healing. Open post, door is closed but knockable.]