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

Marshall was at school, Bod had been sent on errands, and Kate had the day off. She was using it productively – no, really! – by looking at ads for apartments for rent in the general Kansas City area. And kind of daydreaming about the swankier ones while she circled some of the cheaper places to show to Bod, later.

Also, she was eating candy. But mostly that apartment hunt thing!

[ooc: NFB, and mostly for one but open for texts/calls, I guess.]

In her own view, Kate had bounced back... okay-ish, from texting with Mitchell, earlier. Of course, her own view of things was often not the most objective view possible. But at least she hadn't had to spend any time throwing up like she'd been worried would happen for a while there?

Yeah, she was pretty glad to get back in the plane, and she basically even forgot to be awkward at Evan even though there had been a slight incident between them (pre-Mitchell) earlier in the day. Apparently she'd been too smiley at him or something on the flight into Tulsa, since he'd seen fit to inform her that while he was flattered, he wasn't looking to go out with her because he'd recently gotten divorced and had a kid and yadda yadda, and she'd had to point to her ring and remark that she was the sensible teenager's equivalent of married and dude, so not hitting on him.

So, awkward. But they seemed pretty fine now that she was stuffing his carry-on bag into the overhead locker. Which was good because she'd come to like bumping into him on his frequent flights over the past few weeks after the Burger Knight candy dispenser thing.

(Time was running weirdly – even weirdlier? – for her in relation to Fandom again. She didn't even know what day it was back there.)

( TL;DR in which a flight is canceled and minibar drinks are had in a skeezy hotel room. )

[ooc: NFB! Taken with tweakage from USoT S03E07'The Electrifying & Magnanimous Return of Beaverlamp' (S3 episode titles ILU), can be open for texts/calls if you're willing to put up with SP.]

It was (supposed to be) Kate and Bod's last morning in Hawaii. They both had jobs to get back to, books and movies to take care of. But not quite yet, and what better way was there to cling to the vacation than the head out to a gorgeous beach one last time? None. No better way. So that was what they were doing.

But hard as Kate tried, her mind wasn't entirely off the impending, inevitable return to the dreary island where she'd punched someone and videos of her former mistakes were all over the internet. It was already in her head. She'd been ignoring her phone and her laptop most of the week, but today, already anticipating her return to the real world, she finally checked her messages.

There was a single voicemail, and she listened to it. And while she listened to it, her eyebrows knitted into a frown.

And when she listened to it again, that frown did nothing but deepen.

[ooc: NFB, and for the boooy who's not going back yet either!]

Having left Nathan back in his room, Kate had meant for this to be yet another normal, boring evening, just like she'd meant tomorrow to be just another normal, boring day at work. But, of course, then the call from Jack had come through, and suddenly she had an invitation to go to London tomorrow.

At first, she hesitated with her phone for a moment, both wondering whether she should check in with Mitchell and see where in the multiverse he was, and fully knowing she needed to let Bod know she was going because the last thing he needed this week was her just disappearing. Both of those could wait, though. She put her phone down on her desk and got a bag out of her closet.

Sure, she wasn't leaving until tomorrow, but this was something that called for some thought: just what did you pack when you'd been called to come help solve a murder?

[ooc: Open door, open post!]

Thanks to her dreams, Kate had woken up today to the completely crushing thought that there'd be no more lazy mornings of waking up happy and clinging and sprawling, and having the familiar smell of pale graveyard boy be the first thing to register with her about a new day.

Taking that into account, it was really no surprise she'd been feeling a little on the quiet and brooding side of things after getting up. Apparently things were really starting to sink in, and maybe she was starting to sink with them.

She'd be harassing Mitchell for a night at the pub today, she was sure. Or a tiny house party. Or something. Anything to get her out of this mood.

But right now she was looking through the music collection on the shelves in the living room. That was a distraction, at least, if only a tiny one.

[ooc: NFB, open to bristolians and/or people with telephones!]

Nothing had happened since Tara had downed the first of her new meds on Sunday morning. And they'd all been waiting for something to happen ever since. It had been a weird two days.

Today, finally, Kate had escaped the house to go to the mall, where she promptly ran into her old gang of girlfriends, who were oh my God so excited to see her and who wanted to know everything that had been going on with her since she'd moved.

An hour later, Kate slipped away from their old usual table at the coffee shop, making idle promises of keeping in touch.

They were promises she had no intention of keeping. It had been an awkward hour of stilted conversation. She couldn't bring herself to care about any of their shit, and there wasn't a whole lot she could tell them about her life now.

They had probably never really been friends in the first place, Kate figured as she wandered around the mall. Alone again, and kind of really wanting to go back ho-- to where her potted plants were.

Somehow, this led to a slight voicemail spree, after she realized she hadn't actually replied to the two very amusing ones she'd received on Sunday. So, she replied to those, then left a couple others, too.

Then, just for the hell of it, she texted... most of Fandom, really:

Rejoice! Miss Overland Park is returning tomorrow. What should I expect from our (un)fair Fandom Island?

This was Kate Gregson showing her love. Fandom better appreciate it.

[ooc: NFB, open for calls and text messages and stuff. You know her, you got the message.]

Kate had been at this motel since Thursday night. She'd spent the days cooped up in her room, or taking walks around the surrounding area. There wasn't much to see, but she'd told herself that at least there weren’t any gremlins popping out or anything unusual falling out of the sky. In essence, at least it wasn't Fandom.

And the evenings were spent in the motel bar, dressed in her least sixteen-looking clothes, wearing the kind of make-up Alice had tried to get her to use. She hadn't been carded once. It was that kind of a place; indifferent, sleazy, kind of depressing...

She was never telling Mitchell about it.

There'd been some random thirtysomething guy, staying at the motel on a business trip, who'd bought her drinks and told her she had an interesting name and an even more interesting life story. And she'd smiled and said she’d grown to like the name, and oh hey, had she told him about that messed up thing that happened when she’d kinda been involved with Colin Farrell?

... Yeah. This time she was January Harcourt, born in South Africa to a boxing promoter and his trophy wife, grown up all over the States, and currently residing in Monaco. He'd bought it all. (He'd been most interested in her cleavage, anyway.) And she'd been amused. It was simple and easy, and so totally removed from her real life.

But now he was gone, and tomorrow Kate would be gone too. Back to Fandom.

Probably.

For now, though, she was still here, with a glass of orange juice in front of her, and the only thing reminding her that it was Valentine's Day was the drunk middle-aged couple at the corner table loudly declaring their love for each other.

[ooc: NFB due to distance, open for calls and text messages, although depending on who you are, she may not pick up straight away.]