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

Kate hadn't gone back to the cabins after work. She hadn't even gone to Caritas to see whether Nathan was working his shift. No, she'd portalled out to their original flavor mainland and come here, to the spot with the trees and the lake. The weather wasn't the greatest it could have been but at least she wasn't caught in a storm.

And maybe she would've liked one. The day had been long, and she was feeling off-balance in a way that not even idle chatter over the phone with her aunt (in response to a voicemail Charmaine had left for her) had been able snap her out of. Her head just wasn't on straight, and that was why she was here. This had always been a happy place, and this was a good place to take a moment and breathe.

She wasn't sure what she was intending to do later. She figured she'd go back to the island, at least, but perhaps to crash at the dorms just for the night, instead of the cabins. She would've gone to Kansas for the night if she'd thought she'd get away with it. Maybe next week.

Rummaging around her bag, she found she had no more cigarettes, and wondered if this wouldn't just be the perfect time to quit.

[ooc: NFB but open for contact via phone and/or if you know where this place is.]

Kate had had high hopes that they'd be out of the basement in thirty minutes, maybe a little over. But no such luck. Of course not. Nearly two hours later and they were still there, the storm raging outside and showing absolutely no signs of going away.

They were sitting in a circle, some on chairs, some on crates and whatever else seat-like they'd found. Kate had a crate with a blanket over it. How luxurious. She surveyed the room and the people in it, her gaze flicking from person to person. Her mother on her right-hand side, looking mildly uncomfortable; then her brother, awkward and with a permanent frown of worry on his face; Charmaine, looking ready to puke; her dad, munching on a bagel all stoic and calm, so obviously trying to be a leader; then Ted, spreading Nutella on a bagel of his own, with Hany beside him; and then finally Bod, on her left-hand side.

They'd all run out of things to say a while ago, and the mood was not the greatest, nor the most relaxed.

Kate looked down at her phone again.

( Bod was in the middle of a group of people he didn't really know. )

[ooc: NFB, NFI, OOC-okay! Part two of two, still preplayed with the awesome there_was_life, and taken and tweaked from USoT S02E06 'Torando!'.]