Thank you so much for the follows/reviews/faves, it means a lot! We get to learn a little bit more about the mysterious Kate in this chapter :). If anything is inaccurate I apologise, let me know and I'll fix it. Same disclaimer applies as in the first chapter. Hope you enjoy!
They didn't see Kate for two weeks after her chat with Frank. Jamie brought a cell phone to Sunday dinner the day after, when she wasn't there he left it at the house, when she decided to show up it was hers. Frustration began to build in the family. At first they had been unwilling to confront the girl, worried she would disappear as suddenly as she had appeared. But, as so many of their questions went unanswered, resentment began to grow. Joe was their family; with him gone she was all they had left of him, save memories and photographs. They needed answers, they deserved them.
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"Hey mom, I just called to check in, just like you asked." Nicky's tone let her mom know just how unnecessary she thought her worrying was, but that she was trying to be good natured about it.
"I know, I'm doing the annoying mom thing, but it's Saturday night, I worry. Thanks for calling honey. So how was the movie?"
"It was pretty good, we're gonna go for pizza now, and then I'll take the subway home. Thanks for letting me do this. I really appreciate you trusting me."
"So you'll let me know when you're leaving the pizza place? And when you're on the train? I'll pick you up from the subway stop."
"Yes, yes, and OK. Talk to you later mom, bye."
"Bye." Nicky put the phone down and turned back to her friends.
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Nicky said goodbye to the girls she was walking with and headed for the subway stop at the end of the street, calling her mom as she walked. Her friends lived the opposite side of town to her; they were sharing a cab home. She put the phone down as she got to the steps of the station, and headed down into the artificial glare that spilled out onto the dark street. She didn't notice she wasn't alone.
"Hey, honey, how you doin'?" The girl looked up nervously at the group of young guys that had just come down the stairs. They were alone on the platform. She edged nervously away from the muscular young men as they got closer to her. There were four of them, wearing sweatpants and hoodies, and they spread into a loose semi-circle around her. They carried on talking, but Nicky didn't answer, she rubbed her clammy palms on her jeans and mustered her courage.
"B-back off -"
"Oh, she's just peachy, aren't you?" Everyone on the platform whipped around as a young woman in a leather jacket and jeans, her long blonde hair spilling down her shoulders, sauntered down the stairs, apparently completely unsurprised by the unfolding scene.
"Kate?" Nicky's eyes were wide with surprise.
"Hey boys." Kate said with a bright, suggestive smile. She had come to a stop about six feet away from the guy that had spoken first, and hadn't even looked at Nicky as she stared directly into his eyes. "You lookin' for some action?" The guys looked at each other, grinning like they couldn't believe their luck.
"Well, if you're offering, we ain't gonna say no, are we?" Kate smiled at him, an eyebrow arched.
"Really?" She laughed a little. "Hey Nicky, come here sweetie." Nicky had no idea what was going on but she scrambled to get away from the men, she hovered unsurely a few feet behind Kate. "Well then, it's your lucky night," Her hand dropped to her hip, trailed suggestively along her waistband, and then pulled a gun from the back of her jeans. "You found it." She dropped the fake smile in favour of a cold, angry glare. The men all jumped back, the sudden alarm on their face almost comical.
"Whoa, what the hell?"
"OK, here's what's going to happen: you are going to turn around, go back up those steps, and walk out onto the street. You're going to carry on walking, so far and so fast you won't be able to see the city lights, let alone this station. I know you have a knife," she gestured to the smallest of the men with a casual wave of the gun, "and you have me outnumbered. You're probably thinking I'm just a girl, that I wouldn't actually do it. You think you have a chance here. Well, let me tell you, I would love to blow your brains out. If any of you stop, or turn around, or even think about disobeying me, I will be there, and I will kill you. Get moving."
"Hey, look, we weren't gonna -" They screamed as a shot buried itself in the wall behind the guy who had spoken, the noise of the shot deafening in the small space.
"Now." Kate said coldly. Legs shaking, they turned and ran. Kate casually put the gun away and turned to Nicky. "You OK?"
"Yeah, yeah I'm OK I guess . . . What are you doing here? Where did you get a gun?" Kate shrugged casually and guided Nicky to the platform edge as an elderly Chinese woman, oblivious to the drama that she had narrowly avoided, shuffled down the steps.
"Will you be OK getting home?"
"Yeah I'll be fine, but Kate-"
"I'll see you for lunch tomorrow Nicky. Look after yourself." The train was approaching. Kate watched Nicky get on, and then when the station was once again empty she took a penknife out of her pocket and began digging the bullet out of the wall.
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Nicky and the adults were quiet at dinner. Nicky had, of course, told her mom what had happened in the subway, who had in turn told the other adults of the family. Jack and Sean didn't understand why everyone was so tense.
"Have you guys been arguing?" Sean asked. Everyone looked around the table at each other, apart from Kate, who was for once focussed on eating her dinner. A little smile played across her lips at the disapproving looks the others were giving her.
"No, no one's arguing." Danny said, "We just have a lot to think about right now."
"Like what?"
"Crime prevention." Kate said innocently.
"Gun control, too." Frank added pointedly.
"Cops are always trying to figure these things out boys. Luckily the people at this table are up to the job." Kate continued conversationally.
"Yeah, the COPS at this table are." Henry said seriously. Kate just smiled and ate a forkful of chicken.
"Who wants dessert?" Linda asked quickly.
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Kate wasn't surprised when the Reagans, except Linda and the boys, seated themselves around her as she read in the lounge. She closed her book, and looked at them expectantly.
"OK kid, enough of the run around. We're tired of waiting for you to come to us. It's been a month. We want answers." Danny had his arms folded over his chest as he looked down at her seriously.
"Oh?" Kate looked up at him in mild surprise.
"Can the innocent act! How did you know Nicky was gonna be in that subway last night?"
"How could I have known that? It was just a coincidence." Danny was out of his seat again, standing over Kate. She glared defiantly up at him.
"That's BS! You know what, kid? You came to us. You tracked us down, you walked into your grandfather's office, and you told him you were family. And now that we know about you we hardly ever see you, we know nothing about you or what you do. Why did you even come to us? You won't let us get to know you. You won't even get to know us! And what the hell were you thinking, pulling a gun like that on those bastards? Where did you even get a gun?!" Kate's face was impassive under Danny's tirade, but a slight twitch of her eyes hinted she was feeling more than she would show.
"I was thinking I was saving your niece from a mugging, or a lot worse." Her voice was icily calm.
"Ok, Danny, Danny, calm down." Jamie pulled his brother back into his seat and placated him with a glance. "We're all glad that Nicky's OK, and we're thankful you helped her, but come on, Kate. You're got to give us something here. If you won't tell us about last night then could you please at least tell us about your parents? About Joe?" Kate just looked at him, silent.
"Enough." Frank said, with quiet anger in his voice. "Joe is gone. He was my son, and he's gone. He had a child, a child for Christ's sake, which he told us nothing about. We want answers, and you are the only one who can give them to us. So get your head out of your ass and start talking." Kate looked around for several seconds, contemplating them all, and then sighed.
"Fine, I'll tell you some of what you want to know. I guess you deserve that. But understand this, my story is my own, what you know of it, and when you find it out, is up to me. Understood?" They all nodded.
"Go on." Frank urged her solemnly. Kate paused for a moment, and then launched into the story.
"I guess I should begin by telling you not to think that Joe did you, or me, wrong. He didn't hide me from you; he didn't abandon me, because he never knew I existed. My mother was called Stacy Edwards. She was an on again, off again drug addict. She liked to party. My father met her in a club; they had a one night stand. From what I've found out about him that was unusual for Joe. It was very usual for Stacy. I found them by matching our DNA; they were both in the system, Joe for being a cop, Stacy for when she got busted for possession."
"I would have been notified if my son's DNA had been flagged for anything in the system."
"I got around that."
"How?" Kate sighed.
"I found out certain things about an employee of a forensics lab which, if they had become known publicly, would have been damaging. In exchange for keeping their secret, this person did me a favour."
"You blackmailed them?" said Henry, sounding disapproving.
"If that's how you want to put it, pop, yes. But that's beside the point. The point is, I found out who my parents were." Kate drew in a breath, collecting herself. "After tracking down people who knew Stacy I've pieced the story of what happened after that night together. As I said, Stacy's use was off and on. She was off when she met Joe, on soon after that. From what I can gather she had a very sad life. When she wasn't on the drugs, she was drinking. Grew up in social services, ran away at 15, no support network, no family. Pretty though. She bounced around from man to man, dead end job to working the street. Never really found her feet. She and Joe were young; I guess it was a drunken mistake for him. He probably never thought anything of it. Stacy started using again, I don't know if she knew she was pregnant at the time. I know she got kicked out by her boyfriend, he couldn't have kids. It doesn't seem like she knew who Joe was, or how to find him, so even if she'd wanted to tell him about me she couldn't. She was on the street when she gave birth to me. Broke, and apparently not wanting to be a mother, she sold me." Kate paused, letting the information sink in, before continuing. "She was dead less than 18 months later, she OD'd." The room was quiet for several moments. It was impossible to say what Kate was feeling; her face was stoic, unreadable.
"Who did she sell you to?" Danny asked, his voice rough.
"Sorry guys, that's all you get tonight." No one wanted to argue, it felt cruel after the story she'd told. They didn't even want to think who a drug addict would have sold a baby to. They had more to talk about though. Erin bit the bullet.
"Kate, we still need to talk about last night."
"Oh God, can't you just leave it alone?"
"Thank you so much for looking after Nicky, if you hadn't . . ." Erin's eyes shone with emotion as she looked at her daughter, but she swallowed and met Kate's eyes again. "But you can't be walking around carrying a gun; it's dangerous, and illegal. And we need to know where you are. Up until now I hoped maybe you were living with your mother or her family, but now we know that's impossible."
"I look after myself just fine, and I have the gun for protection."
"I want that gun, Kate." Frank said quietly but firmly.
"Well then you're going to be disappointed, you can't have it."
"Kate, when I tell you to do something, I expect it done, or -"
"Or what Gramps? What will you do? What can you do?" She glared at him, her eyes dark. Frank said nothing, examining his granddaughter with a fierce scrutiny. The tension in the room was palpable. "You gonna kick me out? You gonna beat me, Commish? No? That's what I thought. And as for me living with you? I told you, I do what I want to do. You're not keeping tabs on me. No one controls me." She stood, pulled her jacket on, and slung her back pack over her shoulder. Jamie, Erin and Danny all started talking; an unintelligible racket of both protest at her leaving and indignation at her treatment of their father, but Frank silenced them. Kate was already at the door when Nicky raced to catch her and grabbed her elbow.
"Kate? I just wanted to say thank you. I didn't yesterday, and I should have, I'm sorry I didn't, but really - Thank you. I don't know what would have happened to me if you hadn't been there. I don't care how you knew I was in trouble. I'm just really glad you did. Just wait there, one second." Nicky ran off before Kate had a chance to react, she was back seconds later though, and pushed an object into her hand. Kate looked at it and then Nicky questioningly. "Uncle Jamie got it for you. You don't have to use it, but if you do you've got it. Our numbers are in it already." Kate weighed it up in her head for a moment, and then nodded to Nicky, slipping the phone in her pocket. She rested her hand on Nicky's arm for a second, and then left out the front door.
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