Love Ever After Pt. 7

Will's words were still fresh on Henry's mind the following days. So much, that by the end of the week Henry had come to the conclusion that he would have to suck up his fears and talk to Kate about what had happened between them. It was time she knew.

Actually finding her inside the Sanctuary proved to be quite a task, the ex-con artist knew how to hide when she wanted to. And it seemed that whenever Henry was around, all she did was hide. Had this been 2 years ago, Henry would have been able to find her without a doubt, knowing where she liked to go, but now he didn't even know where to begin. Deciding on taking the easy way out, Henry opted on asking the Big Guy instead.

"Hey, have you seen Kate?"

Biggie turned to look at him with narrow eyes, while he had also forgiven Henry for what he had done and, more importantly, was one of the few that knew what had happened, he was still rather protective of Kate. He had to see her get over him…He was still waiting.

"Hrpmh…Why?"

"I kinda wanna talk to her." Henry replied, as Biggie gave him a warning growl. "I'm not going to hurt her, I just…We need this." He sighed.

"If she's hiding she's probably at her 2nd favourite place in the Sanctuary." Biggie answered.

"Oh, okay!" Henry said, turning to leave before he stopped to think. "…Where's that exactly?"

"Fire range."

"Oh! Right, right."

"Aren't you going to ask what her 1st favourite place is?" Biggie questioned, as Henry made to turn around and walk away.

"Er, her room?" Henry guessed, turning to face the Big Guy again, hands in his pockets.

"Your lab." Biggie replied, as he walked past a momentarily shocked Henry. "That's where she spent more of her time while you were gone."

Henry just stared open-mouthed and speechless back at him, his mind not really knowing what to do with the new information. Biggie made his way over to where Henry was and head-slapped him before walking out the door.

"Don't mess this up." He grunted, before leaving. "Again."

Henry's hand went up to sooth the back of his head as she slowly thought out what the Big Guy had said. Her favourite place. His /I lab. The notion tore at his chest more then it should have, but also, in a good way, it made the bottom of his stomach turn.

Pushing these thoughts aside, knowing they would do him no good in what was already going to be a more then delicate conversation, he walked towards the nearest elevator. Henry considered the intelligence behind his decision to talk to Kate while she was in possession of a firearm. He gulped. Maybe it was better not to think about that.

Like the Big Guy had said, he did find her in the shooting range, oblivious to the world as she fired round after round of perfect shots. Kate's aim couldn't improve any more even if she wanted it to. Henry watched her as she handled the gun with precision, her movements smooth and natural. You almost couldn't tell where the gun ended and Kate began, it was, to put it simply, beautiful. As everything else about her in Henry's eyes.

Like most times when Henry was near her, Kate could feel his watchful gaze on her. Her grip tightened every so slightly on the 9mm currently in her hand, it was enough for her perfect aim to be thrown off. The shot directed at the target's heart hit his shoulder instead, Henry, from his spot leaning against the wall, raised an eyebrow.

Kate slowly sighed and lowered her gun, resting it on top of the table in front of her as she took off the protective goggle and eventually the ear-muffs. She turned her head sideways, not quite looking at him, more profile then anything,

"Henry." She said and he couldn't help but notice that this was the first time since he'd gotten back that she actually acknowledged his name.

She'd called him Henry before, but during staff meetings and during some missions in which more often then not she was forced to acknowledge his presence. And then there was that one time she had called him 'Hank'; he didn't know if that one counted.

"Kate." He answered back.

"Does Magnus need something?" She asked, turning her head again so that her back was to him once more.

"Er, no, no…" Henry replied, taking a small step in her direction, his nervous hands stuffed into his pants pockets. "But I do."

Kate turned her head again, slowly, her face unreadable, but he could see through the mask into her eyes. She was trying to decide between snapping at him, laughing her head off or just giving him a terribly depressing gaze. Some nerves, thinking he had any rights to need Ianything/I from her. But in the end she didn't do anything and Henry took that as a good sign as she waited in silence, hoping he'd make it about work, use the easy way out. Not this time.

"We should talk." He said softly, his perceptive eyes taking in the way her hand clutched around the counter edge.

She knew it was coming, they both did, it was only a matter of who would break down first. Kate had expected him to last at least another month.

"There's nothing to-"

"Kate." He interrupted her, taking another step into the room, closer to her. "We Ineed/I this, please?" He's begging, his eyes asking her to give in. Just this once.

She doesn't answer, can't answer, her arms go around her body as she turns sideways, leaning against the plastic wall beside her. It's as close a yes as he's going to hear and for that Henry's grateful.

"I'm sorry."

He'll probably spend his whole life asking for her forgiveness, in some sense, it's the least he can do. Kate's indifferent to his reply and all he wants is for her to acknowledge him. Hit him, yell at him, point the gun her fingers are itching to touch, at him. Anything other then this passive shell.

"Why?"

It's barely more then a whisper, but Henry catches it nonetheless. Why are you apologizing? Why didn't you tell me? Why did you leave? Why didn't you come back sooner? Why did you come back at all? And the one he knows he'll never truly be able to answer; IWhy did you break my heart? /I

So many unasked questions in that one word and for a moment Henry doesn't know if he can get through this. If he could ever get through this, the pain that she's clearly been trying to keep away, locked in some recess of her mind, he sees all of it come back in that one single word. And he despises himself for it.

"Do you wanna go for a walk?" It's nowhere near the answer she's waiting for, but it's all he can give her at the moment.

Kate nods, knowing that this wasn't a conversation they wanted to have in a fire range. She still hadn't said anything else and she still wouldn't meet his eyes, but she walks over to him and remains by his side as they head towards the Sanctuary grounds. The distance between them physically isn't even that far, but they had never been so distance since they've met. It hurts them both the same.

Henry was right, they needed this. The past had to be buried.

They walked around for a few minutes, always in silence, Kate's arms are still wrapped around her stomach, but she could breath a bit more. Fresh air was good like that. She catches him throwing glances at her, every now and then, trying to figure out which way would be easier to start. Kate almost laughs at that. IWhich wound do you want to pick at first Henry?/I

"I'm sorry." He repeats, looking at her, as her gaze remains fixed forward. "I can't apologize enough and I'll probably spend the rest of my life trying to. I really am sorry Kate."

She nods, not saying anything or turning to look at him. Kate doesn't want his apology, she wants answers. She had forgiven him before he even knew it.

"The way I left, it was wrong, and while I don't regret leaving exactly, I will always regret not telling you about the reason behind it. Or taking you with me."

Kate turns to look at him then and Henry takes that as a sign to continue. "You've probably guessed this by now, but I didn't simply run away to any particular place. I went to Europe. To the HAP facility there, remember?"

Kate nodded, yeah, she remembered that place, back when Henry and Will had gone for the first time. She also remembered what had happened there and her jaw went straight as she bit down on her teeth. She remembered who was there too.

"They killed her Kate." Henry said, having known exactly what went through her mind at the mention of Europe. IErica./I Kate turned to stare at him again, her eyes wide and her expression rather shocked.

"Her aunt called me, I don't know how she got my number, but she did. Told me what happened, said she needed my help. This was an inside job. She didn't know what to do. I had to do something about it."

Henry continued on his explanation, telling her everything that had happened once he left, what he had done for the past 2 years and why he had eventually come back. Kate remained mostly silent during his explanation, asking a question here or there to clear up a fact or another, but mostly she listened to him talk.

"Eventually we found out that there wasn't much to be done anymore. Not there. We still hadn't found out who was behind it. We had half a dozen more leads then we had at the start and we were losing to many people. I had us stop." Henry sighed, he was still plagued by what had happened and how useless he had been about it.

"Couldn't Magnus have done anything about it?" Kate asked, leaning against a tree they had arrived at, near the outer walls of the Sanctuary.

"I tried, but we were living in the wild, more as Wolf then humans really. Lilian insisted that we shouldn't call attention to ourselves, that's what had gotten Erica killed in the first place. There really wasn't anything the Sanctuary could do without risking death to more innocent people. I wouldn't have that."

"You still could have called." Kate muttered, bowing her head as her hair hid her face from his.

This whole moment Henry had explained where he was, what he was doing. Some questions were answered, but there were still so many that she still needed to know about.

"No, I couldn't." Henry replied, giving her a soft smile.

Kate lifted her head up to stare at him accusingly. "Of course you could-"

"If I had called, Kate, if I had heard your voice? I would have wanted to be back here in a second, beside you, Iwith/I you… So I didn't call, didn't write and tried not to think…I kinda failed at that last one." Henry confessed, lowering his own head as his kicked a small rock.

"That's one of the reasons I didn't tell you. I couldn't do that to you, knowing you would have come after me had I let you or not." Kate opened her mouth to protest, but again, he interrupted her. "I know you Freelander, you can't stand by seeing injustice happen. It's part of your charm."

Kate lowered her head again, not really knowing what to say, but nodding. He was right, she would have probably gone after him, even if it were to kick his ass for having left her.

"You could have tried explaining it Henry."

"I could. But I was stupid, an idiot, an asshole if you will, I thought this was the better way. Because if you knew, I'd want you with me, but if something happened to you because you weren't a HAP…"

Henry trailed off for a few seconds before looking up at her again, this time she met his eyes.

"I could live, can live, with you despising me Kate. But not with you gone."

His confession had her stomach turning and Kate had to turn her head to try and hide the fact that her eyes were tearing up. She was kinda surprised at how long she had managed to hold them off. Henry stared as a tear fell down her face, feeling his fingers itch to wipe it away. He hated when she cried. He hated even more when he was the cause of it.

"I'm sorry." He whispered, feeling his own eyes tear up.

Kate nodded again, wiping at her tears, trying not to let her weaker side show, something that was incredibly hard to do when the only person who she had ever allowed to see her break down was the cause of it. She wrapped her arms around herself again, letting the tears fall.

Henry couldn't stand it anymore, his fists were clenched and his eyes closed. It was her heartfelt sigh that ended up breaking up his resolve. Before he knew it, he was reaching towards her face, wiping the tears away with his thumb before pulling her into his arms. He held her protectively as Kate didn't even try to struggle, letting him pull her into his embrace, one of his hands coming up to stroke her hair.

"I'm sorry." Henry whispered again, knowing that this changed nothing between them. It was still to late.