AN: Happy New Year's Eve! Party hardy, party safe. I'll be freezing my ass off at a bonfire as we race a storm to 2013. I'm pumped (I'm not. I'm cold and old and just want to sleep). Also - someone informed me that apparently my tumblr didn't pop up a few weeks ago when I tried to post it - letslumberingdragonslie is my handle. But I haven't been on it recently becaaause... well, I'm not procrastinating anything right now.

Anyway, a bit of a slow chapter but an absolutely necessary one. We get a little more character development from Cat!

NEWSIES. Where ARE YOU?


Tori waited until she heard the water splashing before she reluctantly climbed out of bed, her knees still weak from their recent love affair. She dug around the sheets for her clothes and grabbed her apron off the doorknob before trudging down the stairs, a frown firmly plastered on her face.

"Hi-hi!" Cat greeted. The redhead had climbed up onto the counter and was staring into Tori's abandoned pans curiously, her legs swinging back and forth absently. "Andre said Jade was in a really bad mood… I was worried she'd chopped you into bits and thrown you into dinner." She picked up the knife Tori's been using earlier to cut potatoes and imitated a frantic chopping motion in the air. "But you're fine." She beamed.

"Yeah… I'm just going to… Give me that." Tori delicately plucked the knife from Cat's hand. There was an unspoken rule among the house that the bubbly girl wasn't permitted to hold anything sharp, hot, or anything else that might otherwise accidentally harm herself or others. Despite having lived together for months now, something about Cat still concerned her. Jade and Andre had assured her that she was quite harmless – just a few screws were loose here and there – and that her condition could be easily explained. It wasn't, however, their place to discuss. All she knew is that it had to do with the events she and her family, her brother in particular, faced directly after Armageddon.

"Is Jade around? How did her doctor's appointment go?" The small girl was apparently unfazed by Tori's actions, instead retrieving an assortment of spices from the counter and sniffing them.

"Not well." Tori was grim as she re-lit the stove, the conversation she'd just had upstairs painfully fresh in her mind. "Crenshaw says she's never going to regain full movement. He keeps suggesting the cyborg route. I wish he'd drop it."

"Why?" She asked curiously, watching as Tori plucked the bowl of dried cilantro from her hand and upended the contents into her pot.

"It's just too dangerous." Tori frowned again and paused mid-stir. "Don't you think so?"

Cat stared at her and Tori could see the neurons firing. A silence fell between them as the smaller girl cocked her head to the side, red hair tumbling over her shoulders and swaying as her legs continued to rock to and fro. Suddenly she stilled and righted herself, staring intently. "No."

Tori blinked at her. "No?"

"It's risky." She nodded vigorously. "But worth it. Jade's in a lot of pain."

"But… not just risky. Without-a-doubt dangerous. The procedure could really hurt her, Cat."

"She's already hurting though."

Tori felt like she was explaining a very complicated concept to a small child. "Fair point… but – "

"Have I told you about my brother?" She interjected suddenly, pinching a bit of cumin into Tori's boiling concoction and sniffing her fingertips.

"Um… no?" She was thrown off by the abrupt subject change. "You've mentioned a few stories here and there…" Cat shook her head, silencing her.

"He used to be normal… He was a really nice guy, Kevin. I think you would have liked him. He was one of my favorite people in the world." Cat's chewed on her lip and looked down, examining her nails. Tori frowned. Her voice was saturated with sadness, an emotion she could rarely attribute to the younger girl. It was unnerving to see her this way. "When he was 18 he wrecked his car really bad. No seatbelt – went right through the windshield. It messed up his head," She rapped two knuckles against her forehead to illustrate. "He was in a coma for a long time. But then he woke up. We thought everything was going to be okay."

Tori busied herself with the burner, adjusting the heat and stirring the pot… finding anything she could do to not stare at the other girl. "But it wasn't." She mumbled.

"It wasn't." Cat confirmed with a slight bob of her head. "He wasn't. Because of his brain trauma he developed Central Pain Syndrome. It made him hurt all the time." Tori swallowed – she knew exactly what the condition was, she had been diagnosed with it shortly after she woke up. Patrick had hired the best neurosurgeon to work with him to repair the damage to her brain. "We planned surgery for him once we realized what it was. It was scheduled for October 17, 2046."

Tori dipped her head, hiding her face behind a curtain of messy hair. Armageddon. She wished Cat would stop right here – she didn't want to know how the story ended. She was sure it wasn't happy.

"Surgery was the last thing on anyone's mind." She continued. Tori looked at her and Cat forced a sad smile. "We made him as comfortable as we could… but you know. The world was going to hell. There wasn't much we could do. He convinced us that he could bear it. After a few months the pain began to drive him insane. Mom… Mom got sick that December. Pneumonia. With no hospitals … Well. She died. It didn't help his state of mind. He got really weird… he started having all these violent outbursts, stopped talking to us… I got really scared. The next year, though, dad found out about an emergency clinic, one with surgeons. One of them was the doctor that was going to operate on Kevin originally. Doc met with us, decided it would be a good idea to attempt surgery. It'd be risky, but if it worked it'd make all the pain go away."

"It didn't work?" Tori guessed. Cat, whose eyes had been trained blankly on her feet, slowly returned her gaze to the Latina's face. She shrugged her shoulders almost imperceptibly.

"Don't know. Dad wouldn't let him try… he said a lot of the same things you're saying. Too dangerous. Not worth the risk. We'd just lost mom. We can work through it. I even agreed with him… but things only got worse. His pain got worse. He and dad fought a lot. I didn't recognize my own brother anymore. He just… wasn't there. When he started having the episodes he turned into a monster."

"Episodes?" Tori didn't want to know, but couldn't stop herself from asking.

"That's what dad called them. He wouldn't tell me much more than that… Only thing I can guess now is that the physical pain and the emotional trauma from mom dying and Armageddon really messed him up. He'd get really violent when the pain got bad… I watched him go after my dad with a knife one time. When he calmed down he didn't remember a thing." Her eyes flickered to the knife on the counter and she pushed it away, as if she worried it would jump up and bite her.

"So what happened to him?"

"He killed himself when I was 18." It was eerie how composed Cat was, how deadpanned she had become during the course of the story. Tori could only imagine how often she replayed the events in her mind and how, maybe, her odd behavior and enthusiasm for life was her attempt to compensate for the sadness she must often feel. She wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if the grief had addled her mental stability, maybe not to the extent that it had her brother's… but still.

"Cat… I'm so sorry." What words could she offer? She stood there stupidly, biting her lip as she cautiously reached out and put her hand on her knee.

"Yeah… me too." Cat squeezed her hand between her own. "But he's not hurting anymore, and he's with my mom. I try to remember that when I get sad. But now Jade's hurting." Tori frowned, easily able to imagine her girlfriend in Kevin's place. She could see how she easily slipped into Mr. Valentine's role. "I don't think the pain will ever drive her crazy. But she does hurt, and it is affecting her. And I really don't want her to resent anyone. I know you care about her, Tori. We all know. But you're standing in her way, and she will hold a grudge if the opportunity comes and goes and she doesn't get a chance to take it."

"But – "

"Instead of just saying no, try listening to her. Really listening. Talk to her doctors. Explore treatment options. Maybe things could go better than you think. I really don't like watching you two fight… it brings up a lot of bad memories." The redhead slid off the counter and walked to the fridge, retrieving a canteen of water and taking a few sips.

"If I knew 100% it'd be successful I'd be fine with it. I just don't want anything to happen to her, Cat. I'm scared of losing her."

Cat turned and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, smiling sadly. "I guess that's the point though, Tori. You might risk losing her either way." She handed the older girl the container and nodded to the stove. "You're boiling over."

The brunette cursed softly in Spanish and rushed back to her pots, extinguishing the eyes. She grabbed a dishtowel to mop up the mess and turned to speak to Cat again, only to find her gone. She heard the front door shut seconds later and the gravity of her final words slammed into her. You might risk losing her either way. She tossed the towel into the sink and ran the tap, staring through the splashing water as her thoughts rushed past in a similar torrent. They had been arguing, that was undeniable, but Tori had never considered losing Jade over this. Cat's story had given new weight to the situation, one she couldn't forget, couldn't ignore. They couldn't continue existing in a perpetual stalemate – someone was going to have to change their mind at some point for them to continue existing as a couple.

Question was – who was going to crack first? And what was it going to take to get them there?


Jade was unnervingly quiet for the next few days and had firmly taken to sleeping on her side of the bed, despite Tori's attempts to coax her over. She held little to no conversation with anyone in the house, least of all her girlfriend. When she did speak it was blunt and, often times, rude. Tori knew she was upset, knew the Ice Queen had cometh and had built walls a hundred feet high and fifty feet thick. It was going to take time and patience for the defenses to melt away before Tori could again approach her about the cyborg issue.

In the meantime Tori considered Cat's advice. She had no choice but to – with Jade having retreated into herself Tori was consumed with anxiety. The silent treatment was exhausting her and she knew she needed to talk to Jade sooner rather than later. "Jade?" The cyborg called from the couch. The girl in question was stomping down the stairs, heavy boots and coat indicating that she was preparing to head out. "Can we talk?

Jade didn't miss a beat. "Nope." She replied coolly, disappearing out the door. Tori groaned and threw herself down on the couch, dragging a pillow over her face.

I hate this. She thought glumly. It has to end. Tonight. Tonight she'd make Jade talk.


Jade hunched her shoulders against the weather – strong winds had turned the light drizzle that had been falling all morning into icy daggers that stabbed at her face and throat. She grumbled as she pulled her hood over her head, the fur lining offering immediate comfort to her frozen ears. She wanted nothing more than to lay in bed all day and read, a warm fire crackling nearby. Andre had managed to track down a few old Bronte novels and she was burning her way through them at a rapid pace; there was talk of an old book repository a few miles away – she was already planning making a trip once the weather improved.

But that was days away at best, even longer depending on what the doctor might tell her today. She rounded and noted, with mild surprise, that mainstreet was abandoned. It appeared no one felt like braving the storm today. Almost no one. She mused, squinting through the whipping mist. Someone was stationed in a phone booth down the street. People actually use those? Those things were relics. Most of them had disappeared by Armageddon and had made a comeback, thanks to the catastrophic failure of the cell towers. Still, ancient. Suffocating. Dirty. The list prattled on in her head as she neared the booth, pierced brow climbing in surprise when she watched the figure hang up the receiver and step into the weather.

"Sinjin?" She called over the wind. The wiry boy jumped and glanced nervously in her direction. "Who the hell were you calling? You live with everyone who can tolerate you." She snapped. "And we have a phone, moron!" He didn't attempt to explain himself. He just laughed nervously and pulled on his gloves, bowing his head against the rain as he headed back in the direction of home. "Fucking weirdo." Jade hissed. Van Cleef had always been strange; since their arrival in Sanctum he had only gotten stranger. He and a few other Techies had bonded and he often spent time with them, dabbling and experimenting with God-knew-what. He had all but retreated from their midst, not that Jade minded. He always rubbed her the wrong way, and one less creeper in the house oogling her girlfriend the better she felt.

A few moments later she arrived at Crenshaw's office, a small building that also served as his home. She peeled her damp coat off and shook it a few times to shake off the excess water and hung it on a hook by the door, thankful the man had the wood-burning stove fired up. "Doc!" She called, rubbing her hands together as she positioned herself in front of the emanating warmth. It felt like heaven. She tugged the edge of her shirt out to capture some of the radiating heat between fabric and flesh, shivering with delight as the sensation crept up her torso.

"Greetings!" A voice boomed from behind her, nearly startling her into the searing iron.

"Jesus!" She spun and took a few steps forward to put distance between her and the stove. "Who the hell are you!" Before her stood a wild-man.

"I'm Dr. Eric Slocum! And, judging by your horrible disfigured paw, you must be Jade North." Despite her pounding heart she groaned inwardly – Tori had supplied her with her false identity, and had been fairly proud of her simple creativity. It's not like anyone here would check anyway, she argued. People just needed a name, and North was common enough. It'll grow on you, she promised.

Jade still thought it was stupid.

But there were more important things to worry herself with currently, namely the Yeti encroaching on her personal space. His dark beard was thick and scraggly, easily covering the lower half of his face. He was bald on the top of his head and seemed to be trying to make up for it by allowing the rest of his hair to grow long and stick up at odd angles. He wore a ragged and torn scarf wrapped loosely around his neck and layered himself in many bright, thin shirts that Jade all considered piercing eye-sores. He was loud. He was unkempt. He was crazy. He was mildly terrifying.

Jade recognized him almost immediately.

"Sikowitz?" She muttered incredulously, her voice barely audible as someone clunked down the stairs behind him. "Erwin Sikowitz?"

The man in question stared at her suspiciously, his smile vanishing. He stepped back and crossed his arms, studying her. "Jadelyn West… as I live and breathe." Crenshaw appeared around the corner before he could say anything more, and his face immediately split into the excited grin he had been wearing when he had snuck up on her seconds ago. "I'm assuming this is our patient!"

"You assume correctly, Eric." Crenshaw smiled. "Jade, this is Dr. Slocum. He's just arrived from New Mexico. We're glad he made it before the winter months settled in full – traveling can be so difficult this time of year." Jade nodded blankly, gaze still locked on Sikowitz… Slocum… whoever. She hadn't seen him in years – she had presumed him to be dead. How did he – "Ah, Jade, I hope you aren't put off by his… rugged appearance. I can guarantee he's an excellent doctor. A genius in his field." Sikowitz turned his gaze to her, widening his eyes at her and dipped his head at her, encouraging her to speak.

"Oh… right. Yeah, I was worried that you had recruited a grizzly bear to deal with me." The pale girl recovered, bowing her head to pull her hair in a messy bun. She needed the brief moment of privacy, shielded by raven locks, to wipe the shock off her face and compose herself.

"I've pulled all her files – they're in my office. This way." Crenshaw led them down a narrow hall to his study. Sikowitz and Jade eased themselves onto the couch, avoiding eye contact, while Crenshaw retrieved a file and claimed a chair to their left. He flipped open the cover and spread out papers on a small coffee table. "Injuries were sustained when her hand was caught in a piece of machinery and pulled through. We haven't been able to tell the extent of the damage without X-rays, but the majority of the damage seems to lie here," He motioned for Jade's hand and, tenderly, traced a pen across her flesh. "Carpals, Metacarpals, and Proximal Phalanges." Muscle damage too. Therapy has improved dexterity significantly," Crenshaw paused when she narrowed her eyes dangerously at him. "But not to Jade's satisfaction. Daily pain is still a factor, and it's doubtful she'll ever regain full function of the appendage."

Jade extracted her hand carefully from his grasp and flexed her aching fingers. "She's requested full amputation and – " He was interrupted by a phone ringing somewhere in the back of the house. "Ah… excuse me. I'm sorry. Jade, you know what you want – I'll leave this portion to you." Crenshaw excused himself and pulled the door to behind him.

They both listened intently as his footsteps faded before they turned to face each other, surgery completely forgotten. "Eric Slocum?" She raised a brow.

"Jade North? I mean, at least mine's original." He countered. "Look at how big you've gotten! Still got your father's eyes and his… eyebrow piercing?" He poked the bar on her brow. "And purple hair?" He gently lifted a curl and dropped it, watching it bounce and sway. "Well then."

"Oh shut up." She couldn't help but smile, despite his taunting. "Last time I saw you, you had full head of hair. What happened there?"

"I see you're still cheeky as usual." He palmed the top of his head before running his hand through what was left of his hair in an attempt to smooth it. They heard sounds outside the door – footsteps returning. "We need somewhere more private to talk."

"Meet me outside. There's a diner a few streets over." They quickly returned their attention to the documents before them as Crenshaw re-entered the room. Jade flashed a brief smile before making a quick excuse – she forgot it was her turn to cook dinner – before rising to her feet. "I'm sorry to cut this short… but I can call tomorrow and reschedule? Sound okay?"

She didn't wait for Crenshaw's reply as she slipped out the front door, coat not even fully buttoned yet. She eased herself down the icing steps and waited just out of sight from the front window, waiting for Sikowitz to follow. Small world. She thought to herself, cupping her hands in front of her mouth to warm them. Sikowitz had worked with her father at Compass, had been his partner and mentor in the program the first few years after Daniel had been hired. She remembered many times slipping away from the company day-care and wandering towards their lab to spend time with the men. Her time with them sparked her curiosity; she started drawing her own blueprints in crayon on the backs of his invoices, began dismantling things to understand how they functioned. Sikowitz bought her her own first toolkit, albeit a pink one, that she brought to work every day. She smiled as she thought back on those long abandoned memories, ones she had shoved in away in the dark recesses of her mind since Armageddon. Jade pulled her frozen hands away from her face and examined her knuckle on her right index finger – there was still a scar where she had accidentally stabbed herself with a pair of wire-clippers: 3 stitches; her father and Sikowitz had panicked more than she had on that occasion. Who knew fingers could bleed so much?

Jade frowned slightly as she worked her way through the years; Sikowitz had disappeared just a few months before Armageddon occurred. At the time she thought nothing of it – the man had always talked about retiring early and travelling. But he left without word to either her or her father, only brief note informed them of his departure. Chase had confirmed that the good doctor was taking only a temporary leave of absence, and he would return in time.

Jade knew now that she couldn't trust anything Myles had ever spouted from his treacherous lips. Where had the man disappeared to, and how did he find himself here now?

More importantly, could Jade trust him? His affiliation with Compass, with Chase, worried her. She desperately wanted to ignore that niggling, that apprehension, descending like a dark cloud over her fond memories but understood she couldn't. She had once trusted Sikowitz with her life… but then again, Patrick had trusted Madison. Daniel had trusted Myles. Fond memories weren't enough to risk her safety, her friends'… Tori's.

Sikowitz appeared behind her suddenly, his sound of his approach having been silenced by the wind. "I do not enjoy this weather in the least. Too bad there isn't a tropical refugee camp." He smiled, burrowing himself deeper into a jacket Jade could have sworn must have been alive. "So… diner? Just around the corner?" Jade nodded and he bowed at the waist, gesturing that she lead the way. Despite her suspicion a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth – he seemed like the same old Sikowitz. Surely this man, her friend, hadn't been in cahoots with the monsters that had facilitated her family's ruin. "Do you think they have coconut milk?"

Jade laughed, an uncommon sound these days. "I really, really doubt it."


Jade swirled the mug in her hand and watched as the coffee spun, nearly sloshing over the rim. Stupid. She scowled, returning the cup to the table and tucking her hand in her lap so Sikowitz couldn't see it tremor. He was hovering over his order of hot chocolate, basking in the steam that wafted from it. "Delicious chocolate cow juice." He muttered to himself, delicately sipping the beverage. "So." He released a sigh of satisfaction as he swallowed. "How did you wind up here?"

"Andre and I made a run for it." So she was only half-lying; she just didn't want to reveal too many secrets before she knew it was safe. Sikowitz was their only tie back to the Sweepers in this town – she wasn't about to sabotage the happiness they'd found here. "Forged a few signatures, slipped into a cargo truck, jumped ship when it crossed the border. I got tired of being a public enemy. You? You disappeared before Armageddon… kinda shady, considering what came out about Compass employees." Maybe she could coax the truth from him.

His face fell and he reached up to absently smooth his beard. "I hope you don't believe I could have anything to do with that nonsense…"

She raised her brow in both curiosity and mild surprise. "I don't know what to believe, Sikowitz. I thought I knew my father too… Apparently he was involved with the Horsemen." The words tasted bitter in her mouth, but she had to keep up with the ruse that she knew nothing.

"He was not!" He balled his hand into an angry fist against the varnished surface of the table. His sudden reaction took her off guard and she crossed her arms on the counter, leaning forward and offering a look that urged him to explain himself. "Don't believe anything Myles or Madison ever said. They were horrible men, Jade. Horrible. The things they did to people were just …" He trailed off as he caught her gaze. "Your father was not involved in that catastrophe. Nor was I."

Jade feigned her initial surprise. "Then where were you? And why didn't you come back when dad died? I didn't have anyone, Sikowitz, and you were like a brother to him. Mom had left, Aunt Trina had died… you were it." This was a question she had been wanting to ask him for some time now. She had never known what had happened to him – if he had simply run away from or even died in the events following Armageddon. Some nights she still thought of him, wondered where he was… and seethed bitterly that he hadn't come back to take her with him.

Sikowitz looked at her sadly, though no trace of guilt appeared to cross his countenance. "That story is a long and sad one, Jadelyn. One I don't think you want to hear, and one I don't think you'd believe if I told you."

Jade leaned back in her chair, arms still resolutely crossed over her chest. "Try me."


AN: Surprise! Sikowitz :) ... Where's he been?

And what the hell was Sinjin up to?