007: Crash [SCW]
Aug 28, 2016 7:57:36 GMT -5
Post by Admin on Aug 28, 2016 7:57:36 GMT -5
LOCATION: Flagstaff, Arizona
DATE/TIME: May 30, 2010 || 3:45PM LOCAL TIME
CAMERA STATUS: ON/OFF
It had been months since she'd seen her friend Sabra but that wasn't the cause for the butterflies in her stomach. The fact that she'd actually just finished signing paperwork for a new all-female company that set to launch in a few weeks had more to do with it. Kitty paused before opening the door of the cab that had brought her from the hotel, taking a deep breath before glancing down at the wedding set on her hand, the sparkle of the ludicrously over-sized diamond flashing in her eyes and making her smile. Chuckling softly at the novelty of being married to one of the wrestling industry's richest businessmen, she finally rummaged in her purse, digging out enough money to give the driver a sizeable tip on top of the fare before stepping out into the hot afternoon.
Strange that she'd never been here, despite the fact that her ex-husband Jackson had been friends with Gryphon way back in the WCWF days. Shading her eyes, she watched the front door open as she made her way up the walk, feeling the smile turn into a grin on her face. "SABRA!" She called out, lifting her hand in a wave.
There was a smile on Sabra's face as she stepped out the front door of the house, it wasn't exactly a modest home but there was something about it that set it apart from the others in the neighborhood. She didn't run the short distance to meet Kitty halfway, that wouldn't be dignified after all, but the leggy Russian was quick despite that and her voice reflected her pleasure. "Kitty! I am glad you are here."
The shorter Canadian embraced her Russian friend, squeezing her tight. "Thanks for inviting me. Privacy like this is just what I need if I'm going to get myself back into ring shape in time - last thing I need is a roomful of judgmental weirdos gawking and leaking gossip to the tabloids."
"Yes. He hates them," he of course being Gryphon. "Breaks every camera he can get his hands on. Here, we do not worry about these things. Come in, rest a little and then we can get started. My kuzen is here, but he will not get in our way."
Kitty allowed herself to be pulled along by Sabra, giggling softly as she pictured Gryphon strangling paparazzos with their camera straps. "Well, at least you've got him looking out for you. Sometimes I miss Brad for those very reasons. Alex... he loves the attention so much that I start to feel like a fifth wheel sometimes." It wasn't much to confess this - she'd always been unflinchingly honest with Sabra. From the moment they'd met, they'd bonded like sisters. "Your... I'm guessing that means cousin, right? Sounds similar."
Sabra nodded, that soft giggle of Kitty's making her smile for a moment even as she lowered her voice to near a whisper. "Then you should hit him in the kidney and remind him," a blink as her smile went sly, indicating she was mostly joking. "But yes, my... cousin. He is not likely to come out, simply because he is not used to," she gestured at the open space they were crossing to get to the kitchen. "He helped me escape from the country, I think I have told you some of this before? I did not know however, what he had endured to save me. So, we try to help him adjust."
Kitty nodded, thinking of her own late brother, "the things you do for family... I understand completely. You're right, you did tell me he helped you get out of-" she broke off in a shudder, "let's talk about happier things."
"Yes. I am reading a book, when I am done I will give it to you. I think you would like this one better than the last. Also, I think we should go for a hike, Sha..." an abrupt pause because Sabra was still uncomfortable calling Gryphon by his first name. "Gryphon says that this time of year is best to go up in the mountains."
"Oh! I have one for you as well but it's a little bit of a tear-jerker. I've only got a few chapters left, so if I finish it tonight I'll drop it by before I leave town." Kitty smiled, "a hike would be wonderful."
"Then we shall." There was a perk in Sabra's voice because she knew with Kitty she could slow down and look at the scenery a little where Gryphon would always have them run, push the pace in that effort to always best himself. Sabra went through the archway into the kitchen, heading for the cabinet where she stored the old fashioned tea pot that she liked to use when she realized that they were not after all going to be alone in the kitchen. She turned her head to see Mikhail at the kitchen table, a newspaper opened but folded to the crossword puzzle, a mug of steaming tea next to that as he tapped the paper with the pencil he held loosely in his fingers. Sabra smiled at him in an almost girlish fashion, her voice pitched to carry. "We have our guest, she will be working with Gryphon and I so we will not disturb you."
Mikhail almost rolled his eyes as he huffed out a frustrated for him breath. "I do not think I worry about that just now, krolik devushka. I worry about forty-one down."
Kitty had frozen in the archway, one hand out to brace against the wall because her knees had almost buckled at the sound of his voice. The sheer impossibility of seeing him again, here of all places, left her speechless and feeling a distinct stab of pain in her chest as though her heart had just stopped. He was thinner than he'd been the last time she'd seen him; his face seemed more angular, adding to that regal bearing that he'd always seemed to have in her eyes.
"Sasha, come look." He held the paper up, looking towards the archway as he did and the paper dropped from his fingers. He swore under his breath as he turned in the chair enough to pick it up, the tattoo on his neck in plain sight as he moved. Replacing it on the table, he stood slowly, stiffly but was as proper, nodding at Kitty though his voice was barely above a whisper. "Kaitlynn."
Her eyes were locked on him, wide and filled with a sort of wariness that made it seem like she planned to bolt from the room. "Mikhail," her voice came out steadier than she'd expected despite the fact that she could barely draw a breath. She wanted to tell him that seeing him now hurt too much to even comprehend, but how could she even tell him that she'd simply assumed he was dead because the alternative was far too depressing.
Mikhail turned to Sabra, keeping his voice low though his gaze was on her sharp. "I did not know, you knew Kaitlynn, Sasha. What have you told her, I wonder." A pause, and he took a step towards Kitty, still looking at his cousin. "Would you give us a moment?"
A moment of conflicted expressions went over Sabra, her analytical mind attempting to piece together the puzzle suddenly laid out for her, but that look of his cut her to the quick, as close to begging as she'd ever seen so she nodded and moved to walk past Kitty, murmuring to her. "I will be right in the other room."
Kitty nodded woodenly, still leaning against the archway for support. "I'm..." her mouth was suddenly so dry that she had to stop, shaking her head instead.
He took a few steps, close but not too close, simply taking her in the way a man dying of thirst would look at a sudden oasis. He wanted to go to her, and get on his knees and tell her anything she wanted to hear, but instead he took a breath and nodded once, sharply. "Do not blame Sasha, she did not know. I never gave any of them your true name, so when they..." a full pause, as he considered what to say and then he shook his head. "That does not matter now. But if you need to hit me, do it now while I am ready for it."
"It doesn't matter," she echoed his words, still shaking her head, still rooted to the spot, "I thought you were dead." The way she said it made it almost seem as though she still wished that were the case, tears flooding her eyes.
"For five years, Kaitlynn, I was. I was nothing, do you understand? But knowing Sasha was safe, that my sisters... you, they could not touch? It was worth being that." He turned back toward the table, intent on getting his mug, though his voice softened so many degrees. "Kaitlynn, do not cry. I despise myself enough, without your tears."
She understood enough of what had happened from the bits and pieces that Sabra had told her, enough that she couldn't say any of the horrible words that were there in her mind, on the tip of her tongue. Every bit of her wanted to lunge at him, claw his eyes out, make him hurt the way she'd hurt for the months she'd spent trying to break free from the depression that said she wasn't worthy, wasn't wanted after all. "Why?" The question slipped out, her hand falling away from the wall.
Mikhail paused, his clever fingers touching the mug and he looked back at her, the strangest expression on his face that she'd only asked him one question, with that single damning word.
He walked with a straight spine and his head up despite the bruises that the guards had laid on him when he refused to cower before them. Mikhail Petrov's trial had been far speedier than usual, and he'd been processed extraordinarily quickly as well – so quickly that even hints of who he was, why he was there, had yet to filter through. He had but a single tattoo on his pale skin, something he'd had done in the holding cell during his trial as a show of extreme defiance to his persecutors. A dried white rose on his neck and the man that had done it had an artist's eye, the work fine and steady. The meaning was clear to anyone that had been in prison Death is preferable to loss of virtue, but those men who were jeering and catcalling him as he walked those poorly-lit rows escorted by five guards had no idea why – which was the most important part.
He had refused to talk during the entirety of his trial. He listened as they defamed him, accused him of terrible things, and maligned his character as a man. He knew what they wanted, they wanted to know where he'd sent his cousin Sasha after she'd fled Vladivostok and gone to him in Moscow. They accused him of selling her, or killing her...worse, even. But he'd stared at them all with those dark intense eyes of his and never flinched, never spoke. The judge had finally just done the inevitable and sentenced him, though the defense had gotten a message just before that had 'proof of life' so he had not been charged as a murderer of kin after all. He'd sneered at the judge but still never spoken.
They didn't deserve the sound of his voice.
Now he was facing a prison term in one of the vilest institutions in a collection of them, and yet he still didn't try to do a thing to save himself at the expense of his little bunny. She'd known what they'd do, she'd begged him to go with her and almost...almost in a moment of weakness he'd considered it. She'd be alone, barely able to speak the language she'd need to survive. She had money, but how long would that last? But then he thought about Dierdra, and his failure of a little brother who was more wrapped up in where to get his next fix than to care about what happened in the family and he knew neither of them would be able to survive what would happen if he just ran. Sasha's tears pierced his heart, but he would rather them now and know she lived free and away from the threat of being sold to pay off a debt she never incurred.
He sat silent in his cell, the rough spun clothing harsh against his skin, the dark pants ill-fitting his lanky form, though the white tank top showed that despite his thinness he was chiseled, and tightly muscled. At least the boots fit. He had also not failed to notice that the guards had left his cell door open, he supposed that was payback for breaking the desk warden's jaw after he'd insinuated that Mikhail had possibly abused his cousin. He had had to listen stoically in court to that bullshit and he'd be damned if he did so now, no matter what the punishment was.
The first man to call him out to the general floor was big. Taller than even Mikhail and far heavier, with the broken knuckles of a man used to brawling, nose too. He'd mocked Mikhail, making his group of followers laugh raucously though when Mikhail stood and silently gestured that he accepted the challenge, the look on Mikhail's face had caused that laughter to die out. His words though, enraged the ape-like man. "Be sure. Be sure this is what you wish, because I require a fool to make a permanent example of."
The man had postured, demanded his followers to drag Mikhail out of the cell but the look in his eyes had kept them from touching him as they walked to that empty spot. The man swung on him without warning, letting his rage guide his fist but he never managed to land a blow. It had been over with in less than five minutes, and Mikhail had another five years tacked to his sentence after.
He still did not regret what he'd done.
"Kaitlynn." Those dark eyes of his trying to tell her everything, without saying a word but he knew that would never suffice. "Because it was what I had to do, to save what I loved. I would have died in truth, to spare you the pain of this. Of all this. There is no apology I can make, that will ever undo that hurt, and I regret only that I was unable to get word to you so you knew. But I would do it again, to keep you safe."
She stared at him for far too long without saying a word before she abruptly turned on her heel and walked out of the room. Her vision was completely clouded with tears to the point where she nearly plowed right into Sabra, letting out a dismayed little squeak that turned into a choked sob. .
Sabra had heard every word, but her expression never showed that, only the proper concern that one should have for a friend as close as Kitty was to her. She wanted to say something, but in the end she simply held her arms open for Kitty because she felt that if Kitty didn't get those tears out... worse could happen.
Clinging to her, Kitty couldn't help herself. The floodgates were open, all the darkness and hopelessness bubbling up, the smug happiness she'd felt on arrival bleeding away even as the tears fell, leaving her feeling like the worst kind of fraud. "I loved him," she whispered, her voice barely audible between hiccuping sobs.
Sabra brought her arms up and held her gently, even rubbing her back as she murmured softly to her in mostly Russian, though a word here and there held an extra note. "Loved. Because... no. This is not the time for that." She stroked Kitty's hair, though over her shoulder she locked eyes with her cousin and with a bare shake let him know it would be better if he just vanished into his room.
"If.....i-if...." she couldn't even force the words out, letting out a sigh instead. If she'd known that Mikhail was alive, she wouldn't have gotten involved with Alexander Stryfe. If she'd known, she'd never have gone crawling back to Brad, she'd never have ended up being attacked by Spiral.
"I know." She may not have known even the half of it, but Sabra knew it was what she would have wanted to hear, and she gave up the soothing motions of her hands to simply hold Kitty as tightly as she could.
Sniffling, Kitty's tears finally started to abate and she pulled back slightly, "maybe... we should go for that hike. I just don't really think I want to be here... in this house... right now."
"We can do that. Come into the kitchen, I will get us water and things and we will go." She didn't quite let go of Kitty, slipping her arms down she took one of Kitty's hands. "See, I am right here."
"Thank you," Kitty gave her had a grateful squeeze. "Not sure what I'd do without you."
That made Sabra shake her head as she led her out of the room. "Good thing perhaps then, that you will never have to find out."
When they arrived in the kitchen, Kitty let go of Sabra, relieved to find the room empty although that discarded, folded newspaper was still there. Grabbing it, she stuffed it into her open purse before hanging it over the back of one of the chairs. Later, she'd study the ones he'd already filled in, committing the curve of each letter to memory. For now, she had to convince herself that things happened for a reason, at the time they were supposed to. Maybe someday they'd end up in the right place at the right time.
DATE/TIME: May 30, 2010 || 3:45PM LOCAL TIME
CAMERA STATUS: ON/OFF
It had been months since she'd seen her friend Sabra but that wasn't the cause for the butterflies in her stomach. The fact that she'd actually just finished signing paperwork for a new all-female company that set to launch in a few weeks had more to do with it. Kitty paused before opening the door of the cab that had brought her from the hotel, taking a deep breath before glancing down at the wedding set on her hand, the sparkle of the ludicrously over-sized diamond flashing in her eyes and making her smile. Chuckling softly at the novelty of being married to one of the wrestling industry's richest businessmen, she finally rummaged in her purse, digging out enough money to give the driver a sizeable tip on top of the fare before stepping out into the hot afternoon.
Strange that she'd never been here, despite the fact that her ex-husband Jackson had been friends with Gryphon way back in the WCWF days. Shading her eyes, she watched the front door open as she made her way up the walk, feeling the smile turn into a grin on her face. "SABRA!" She called out, lifting her hand in a wave.
There was a smile on Sabra's face as she stepped out the front door of the house, it wasn't exactly a modest home but there was something about it that set it apart from the others in the neighborhood. She didn't run the short distance to meet Kitty halfway, that wouldn't be dignified after all, but the leggy Russian was quick despite that and her voice reflected her pleasure. "Kitty! I am glad you are here."
The shorter Canadian embraced her Russian friend, squeezing her tight. "Thanks for inviting me. Privacy like this is just what I need if I'm going to get myself back into ring shape in time - last thing I need is a roomful of judgmental weirdos gawking and leaking gossip to the tabloids."
"Yes. He hates them," he of course being Gryphon. "Breaks every camera he can get his hands on. Here, we do not worry about these things. Come in, rest a little and then we can get started. My kuzen is here, but he will not get in our way."
Kitty allowed herself to be pulled along by Sabra, giggling softly as she pictured Gryphon strangling paparazzos with their camera straps. "Well, at least you've got him looking out for you. Sometimes I miss Brad for those very reasons. Alex... he loves the attention so much that I start to feel like a fifth wheel sometimes." It wasn't much to confess this - she'd always been unflinchingly honest with Sabra. From the moment they'd met, they'd bonded like sisters. "Your... I'm guessing that means cousin, right? Sounds similar."
Sabra nodded, that soft giggle of Kitty's making her smile for a moment even as she lowered her voice to near a whisper. "Then you should hit him in the kidney and remind him," a blink as her smile went sly, indicating she was mostly joking. "But yes, my... cousin. He is not likely to come out, simply because he is not used to," she gestured at the open space they were crossing to get to the kitchen. "He helped me escape from the country, I think I have told you some of this before? I did not know however, what he had endured to save me. So, we try to help him adjust."
Kitty nodded, thinking of her own late brother, "the things you do for family... I understand completely. You're right, you did tell me he helped you get out of-" she broke off in a shudder, "let's talk about happier things."
"Yes. I am reading a book, when I am done I will give it to you. I think you would like this one better than the last. Also, I think we should go for a hike, Sha..." an abrupt pause because Sabra was still uncomfortable calling Gryphon by his first name. "Gryphon says that this time of year is best to go up in the mountains."
"Oh! I have one for you as well but it's a little bit of a tear-jerker. I've only got a few chapters left, so if I finish it tonight I'll drop it by before I leave town." Kitty smiled, "a hike would be wonderful."
"Then we shall." There was a perk in Sabra's voice because she knew with Kitty she could slow down and look at the scenery a little where Gryphon would always have them run, push the pace in that effort to always best himself. Sabra went through the archway into the kitchen, heading for the cabinet where she stored the old fashioned tea pot that she liked to use when she realized that they were not after all going to be alone in the kitchen. She turned her head to see Mikhail at the kitchen table, a newspaper opened but folded to the crossword puzzle, a mug of steaming tea next to that as he tapped the paper with the pencil he held loosely in his fingers. Sabra smiled at him in an almost girlish fashion, her voice pitched to carry. "We have our guest, she will be working with Gryphon and I so we will not disturb you."
Mikhail almost rolled his eyes as he huffed out a frustrated for him breath. "I do not think I worry about that just now, krolik devushka. I worry about forty-one down."
Kitty had frozen in the archway, one hand out to brace against the wall because her knees had almost buckled at the sound of his voice. The sheer impossibility of seeing him again, here of all places, left her speechless and feeling a distinct stab of pain in her chest as though her heart had just stopped. He was thinner than he'd been the last time she'd seen him; his face seemed more angular, adding to that regal bearing that he'd always seemed to have in her eyes.
"Sasha, come look." He held the paper up, looking towards the archway as he did and the paper dropped from his fingers. He swore under his breath as he turned in the chair enough to pick it up, the tattoo on his neck in plain sight as he moved. Replacing it on the table, he stood slowly, stiffly but was as proper, nodding at Kitty though his voice was barely above a whisper. "Kaitlynn."
Her eyes were locked on him, wide and filled with a sort of wariness that made it seem like she planned to bolt from the room. "Mikhail," her voice came out steadier than she'd expected despite the fact that she could barely draw a breath. She wanted to tell him that seeing him now hurt too much to even comprehend, but how could she even tell him that she'd simply assumed he was dead because the alternative was far too depressing.
Mikhail turned to Sabra, keeping his voice low though his gaze was on her sharp. "I did not know, you knew Kaitlynn, Sasha. What have you told her, I wonder." A pause, and he took a step towards Kitty, still looking at his cousin. "Would you give us a moment?"
A moment of conflicted expressions went over Sabra, her analytical mind attempting to piece together the puzzle suddenly laid out for her, but that look of his cut her to the quick, as close to begging as she'd ever seen so she nodded and moved to walk past Kitty, murmuring to her. "I will be right in the other room."
Kitty nodded woodenly, still leaning against the archway for support. "I'm..." her mouth was suddenly so dry that she had to stop, shaking her head instead.
He took a few steps, close but not too close, simply taking her in the way a man dying of thirst would look at a sudden oasis. He wanted to go to her, and get on his knees and tell her anything she wanted to hear, but instead he took a breath and nodded once, sharply. "Do not blame Sasha, she did not know. I never gave any of them your true name, so when they..." a full pause, as he considered what to say and then he shook his head. "That does not matter now. But if you need to hit me, do it now while I am ready for it."
"It doesn't matter," she echoed his words, still shaking her head, still rooted to the spot, "I thought you were dead." The way she said it made it almost seem as though she still wished that were the case, tears flooding her eyes.
"For five years, Kaitlynn, I was. I was nothing, do you understand? But knowing Sasha was safe, that my sisters... you, they could not touch? It was worth being that." He turned back toward the table, intent on getting his mug, though his voice softened so many degrees. "Kaitlynn, do not cry. I despise myself enough, without your tears."
She understood enough of what had happened from the bits and pieces that Sabra had told her, enough that she couldn't say any of the horrible words that were there in her mind, on the tip of her tongue. Every bit of her wanted to lunge at him, claw his eyes out, make him hurt the way she'd hurt for the months she'd spent trying to break free from the depression that said she wasn't worthy, wasn't wanted after all. "Why?" The question slipped out, her hand falling away from the wall.
Mikhail paused, his clever fingers touching the mug and he looked back at her, the strangest expression on his face that she'd only asked him one question, with that single damning word.
He walked with a straight spine and his head up despite the bruises that the guards had laid on him when he refused to cower before them. Mikhail Petrov's trial had been far speedier than usual, and he'd been processed extraordinarily quickly as well – so quickly that even hints of who he was, why he was there, had yet to filter through. He had but a single tattoo on his pale skin, something he'd had done in the holding cell during his trial as a show of extreme defiance to his persecutors. A dried white rose on his neck and the man that had done it had an artist's eye, the work fine and steady. The meaning was clear to anyone that had been in prison Death is preferable to loss of virtue, but those men who were jeering and catcalling him as he walked those poorly-lit rows escorted by five guards had no idea why – which was the most important part.
He had refused to talk during the entirety of his trial. He listened as they defamed him, accused him of terrible things, and maligned his character as a man. He knew what they wanted, they wanted to know where he'd sent his cousin Sasha after she'd fled Vladivostok and gone to him in Moscow. They accused him of selling her, or killing her...worse, even. But he'd stared at them all with those dark intense eyes of his and never flinched, never spoke. The judge had finally just done the inevitable and sentenced him, though the defense had gotten a message just before that had 'proof of life' so he had not been charged as a murderer of kin after all. He'd sneered at the judge but still never spoken.
They didn't deserve the sound of his voice.
Now he was facing a prison term in one of the vilest institutions in a collection of them, and yet he still didn't try to do a thing to save himself at the expense of his little bunny. She'd known what they'd do, she'd begged him to go with her and almost...almost in a moment of weakness he'd considered it. She'd be alone, barely able to speak the language she'd need to survive. She had money, but how long would that last? But then he thought about Dierdra, and his failure of a little brother who was more wrapped up in where to get his next fix than to care about what happened in the family and he knew neither of them would be able to survive what would happen if he just ran. Sasha's tears pierced his heart, but he would rather them now and know she lived free and away from the threat of being sold to pay off a debt she never incurred.
He sat silent in his cell, the rough spun clothing harsh against his skin, the dark pants ill-fitting his lanky form, though the white tank top showed that despite his thinness he was chiseled, and tightly muscled. At least the boots fit. He had also not failed to notice that the guards had left his cell door open, he supposed that was payback for breaking the desk warden's jaw after he'd insinuated that Mikhail had possibly abused his cousin. He had had to listen stoically in court to that bullshit and he'd be damned if he did so now, no matter what the punishment was.
The first man to call him out to the general floor was big. Taller than even Mikhail and far heavier, with the broken knuckles of a man used to brawling, nose too. He'd mocked Mikhail, making his group of followers laugh raucously though when Mikhail stood and silently gestured that he accepted the challenge, the look on Mikhail's face had caused that laughter to die out. His words though, enraged the ape-like man. "Be sure. Be sure this is what you wish, because I require a fool to make a permanent example of."
The man had postured, demanded his followers to drag Mikhail out of the cell but the look in his eyes had kept them from touching him as they walked to that empty spot. The man swung on him without warning, letting his rage guide his fist but he never managed to land a blow. It had been over with in less than five minutes, and Mikhail had another five years tacked to his sentence after.
He still did not regret what he'd done.
"Kaitlynn." Those dark eyes of his trying to tell her everything, without saying a word but he knew that would never suffice. "Because it was what I had to do, to save what I loved. I would have died in truth, to spare you the pain of this. Of all this. There is no apology I can make, that will ever undo that hurt, and I regret only that I was unable to get word to you so you knew. But I would do it again, to keep you safe."
She stared at him for far too long without saying a word before she abruptly turned on her heel and walked out of the room. Her vision was completely clouded with tears to the point where she nearly plowed right into Sabra, letting out a dismayed little squeak that turned into a choked sob. .
Sabra had heard every word, but her expression never showed that, only the proper concern that one should have for a friend as close as Kitty was to her. She wanted to say something, but in the end she simply held her arms open for Kitty because she felt that if Kitty didn't get those tears out... worse could happen.
Clinging to her, Kitty couldn't help herself. The floodgates were open, all the darkness and hopelessness bubbling up, the smug happiness she'd felt on arrival bleeding away even as the tears fell, leaving her feeling like the worst kind of fraud. "I loved him," she whispered, her voice barely audible between hiccuping sobs.
Sabra brought her arms up and held her gently, even rubbing her back as she murmured softly to her in mostly Russian, though a word here and there held an extra note. "Loved. Because... no. This is not the time for that." She stroked Kitty's hair, though over her shoulder she locked eyes with her cousin and with a bare shake let him know it would be better if he just vanished into his room.
"If.....i-if...." she couldn't even force the words out, letting out a sigh instead. If she'd known that Mikhail was alive, she wouldn't have gotten involved with Alexander Stryfe. If she'd known, she'd never have gone crawling back to Brad, she'd never have ended up being attacked by Spiral.
"I know." She may not have known even the half of it, but Sabra knew it was what she would have wanted to hear, and she gave up the soothing motions of her hands to simply hold Kitty as tightly as she could.
Sniffling, Kitty's tears finally started to abate and she pulled back slightly, "maybe... we should go for that hike. I just don't really think I want to be here... in this house... right now."
"We can do that. Come into the kitchen, I will get us water and things and we will go." She didn't quite let go of Kitty, slipping her arms down she took one of Kitty's hands. "See, I am right here."
"Thank you," Kitty gave her had a grateful squeeze. "Not sure what I'd do without you."
That made Sabra shake her head as she led her out of the room. "Good thing perhaps then, that you will never have to find out."
When they arrived in the kitchen, Kitty let go of Sabra, relieved to find the room empty although that discarded, folded newspaper was still there. Grabbing it, she stuffed it into her open purse before hanging it over the back of one of the chairs. Later, she'd study the ones he'd already filled in, committing the curve of each letter to memory. For now, she had to convince herself that things happened for a reason, at the time they were supposed to. Maybe someday they'd end up in the right place at the right time.
