Had they been starring in an action movie, Kate would have kicked the door down and started firing at the men who had tried to ambush them while screaming like Xena the Warrior Princess. Had they been starring in a horror movie, she would have asked the cliché 'who's there?' question with a trembling voice and wait for her soon-to-be killer to respond with the appropriate deafening silence before cautiously walking in to be slaughtered.

But this wasn't a movie —and even if it was, Kate would have been the anti-hero.

So instead of following those stupid movie clichés, she stayed true to her usual cocky self. Taking a deep breath, she plastered a smirk on her currently colorful face and strutted into the room. Slow steps, crossing one leg in front of the other like in catwalk fashion, her hips swaying with every step. "Hello boys" she mused "Fancy seeing you here!"

With their attention on her face and body, Kate made the first move. In a quick flip of her wrists she had already ripped two men's chests open and pulled out their hearts. "This will be very quick, I see." she chuckled as she dropped their hearts and the men fell lifeless to the floor.

With a quick glance she noticed Kaya was right; ten men —well, now eight— waited for them. And this was no social call; they were there for the kill. Within the next few seconds there was havoc but her senses alerted her that Kaya was in the room hiding as instructed. Kate smirked at that; at least the kid took a hint when it was most needed.

Bullet sounds echoed around the steel covered room and the metallic smell of blood, that distinctive smell of copper filled Kate's nostrils. She too ached for the kill as she ripped those men apart limb by limb; their guns were useless in close range, let alone against her in hand combat and Kate's claws tore through their flesh viciously. She could feel their blood covering her slowly and it pleased her; she had been domesticated for too long, it felt good to tear those pieces of shit apart.

As she tore the men to bits methodically, one escaped. Crawling on all fours, he moved towards Kaya's hiding spot under a desk; it wasn't the brightest place she could find to hide but it was the best the girl could work with in a moment of crisis and bloodshed. Knife between his teeth, the young man crawled towards her. And she was there, curled up in a ball looking frightened; he smirked.

"Don't worry, sweetheart" he cooed looking at her, smirk still on his face. "He wants you alive, so you're safe."

Kaya lifted her gaze to his, her lost and scared expression fading away and being instantly replaced by that of determination and coldness. "You're not." she said lifting the gun she was hiding and firing a single bullet between the man's eyes.

Kate froze for a second in her spot. A bullet. A bullet that wasn't fired towards her. "Kaya?" she called out turning her face towards the desk the girl was hiding under. A sigh of relief escaped her as the young brunette stood up, coming out of her hiding. She had blood on the top of her shirt and all over her face and hair, but she was unharmed; she was okay.

Looking at Kate's relieved expression she raised the gun and, with her eyes locked with the ones of the she-wolf, she took a shot. The bullet passed right over Kate's shoulder and went straight into a man who was standing behind her. The man was practically holding his insides but still had the nerve to make one last attempt against her.

"I killed them..." Kaya stammered her expression changing again to that of pure shock while all color drained from her face.

"It was a good shot." Kate praised as she glanced at the dead man over her shoulder. "You just saved my life, you know..." she said walking towards the girl.

She knew how the teen felt, she had been that girl.

When she first killed a person she felt a little dead inside too. Kate Argent had killed many times since, so many that she didn't really care, she wasn't affected by it; but Kaya had taken a life —two— for the first time. If sugarcoating it helped her even a tiny bit then that's what Kate was going to do. Have her think she couldn't have stopped the man alone, that she would have died had it not been for her…

It was a tiny hit her ego could take for the girl's sanity.

"I killed them. I killed two men."

"You did what you had to do to protect us." Kate said and pulled the girl to her arms, her hand running through brunette tresses.

"I killed those men." Kaya mumbled against Kate as the woman stroke her hair. Slowly, she faded into nothingness.

"What did you do to her, Kate?" Derek growled again but Kate ignored him. "Tell me, damn it!"

"She took a life." Kate finally told him calmly as she pushed a few strands of hair away from Kaya's forehead. "Two to be exact…"

Derek breathed out heavily. Suddenly he felt there was too much air inside him, clotting his brain. "When? How?" he sighed letting himself fall back to a sitting position on the floor. He knew what that meat; the kill. For a werewolf it was something like a rite of passage to a whole other state; you practically traded a part of yourself in an unspoken deal with an unseen devil for more physical strength and power within the werewolf community. But for a human —it was all about sacrifice. Killing someone for the first time —killing someone period— was like killing a small part of your soul.

Taking a life meant giving up part of yours, it changed people.

"We were set up. They came for us, Derek." Kate sighed and took a seat next to the unconscious teenager and looked through her purse for something to clean the teen's face with. "When we went to get Peter, they were waiting for us." When she finally found the wet wipes she was looking for she started cleaning the dry blood off the girl's face tentatively.

"Tell me…"

"There were ten men there, in the animal clinic. The place was dark, pipes were leaking —a real horror flick set. I told her to hide and let me handle it, placed a gun in her hand…" Kate paused, wondering herself if she regretted giving Kaya the gun. She really didn't; she just regretted that the girl had to use it. "I guess as I killed people one got to her and tried to talk to her or hurt her. Oh Derek, it was a perfect shot; right between the eyes."

Kate seemed to be impressed and the emotionless part of him was too, but the other part of him, the part that cared and knew what taking a life a tender age like that meant, ached for the girl. "And the other one?"

"The other one she killed for me." Kate said and smiled slowly looking at the girl, fondly even, as her gaze moved from the unconscious girl to Derek. "She actually killed someone 'cause she thought I needed to be protected."

Derek closed his eyes and breathed out audibly through his nose at the small irony in the thought that Kate Argent would ever need to be protected. He could feel pride swelling inside of him for the girl laying on his bed; for the girl that would give a piece of her to protect someone, to protect a person she considered to be one of her own —even if that person was Kate, whom he personally despised. Kaya would go that extra mile for a person, because she was that good.

"Can you imagine that love?" the woman mumbled as she traced her fingers across the girl's face. She looked at Derek's expression and chuckled. "I know, I know… I don't deserve that kind of sacrifice, you'll say. But you seem to forget that I was human once too…"

"A human that took pleasure in ruining lives. Just like you do now. There's not much of a difference there really, if you're asking me." He replied harshly. Sometimes, when he watched the woman with the kids, he almost forgot what she was capable of; but then he realized how much she looked like a mother and remembered Talia, his own mother, who was dead because of her. And the hatred returned.

"I see; you blame me for everything. And you're probably right…" Kate said looking down. For the first time she averted her eyes from him as he spoke of her past crimes. It actually felt vulgar to look at him in the presence of the sleeping girl who had just killed for her; who had just killed for a murderer.

"At least you're giving me that much!" he exclaimed. Anger was slowly starting to boil up inside of him; all those years of keeping the anger in, channeling it, using it as his own anchor, it was all coming back to him now. "You killed my family; took it all away, Kate. Everything good I could have had. You made me into this." He spat out the last word with so much anger it even surprised him. Maybe because, in a way, it was the first time he admitted out loud that he didn't really like himself; that he didn't like the solitary man he had become after her in order to keep himself safe. To keep what was left of his heart and sanity intact.

"You're right, I probably did all that." she shook her head with a fake smile. "But Kaya gave me this book the other day. At some point it said 'Cruelty isn't a personality trait. Cruelty is a habit.' Think about that…" she said and stood from her spot on the bed. "I'll stop by tomorrow to leave her bags." she informed him and made her way out without waiting for a response. She knew he wouldn't suddenly forgive her and, if she was to be honest, she didn't really care about his forgiveness either.

She just hoped she hadn't, unintentionally this time, ruined yet another person…

He sat by her side for hours, waiting —just waiting for a sign that she was still in there, in that body that now looked so much like an empty shell. And he felt helpless; more helpless than last year when he thought he was getting humanized or when he was about to die. He was worried, scared —scared that she wasn't coming back; and he still had so much to tell her, teach her. It was that very sad moment that it really crossed his mind how he hadn't really started talking to her for real, that he hadn't really taught her anything, he hadn't showed her anything, that they had just co-existed under the same roof and shared the same bed a few times.

Derek was used to loss, he knew it all too well; felt it more often than he felt joy. But she was too young to be lost and she was completely unharmed, at least physically, so why was she fading away? Why was she letting herself fade away from —from him, the world, he wasn't sure…

"Any change?" Peter asked handing his nephew another cup of coffee. He looked at Kaya worried; sure, he had spoken with Kate to get the story himself but the woman had told him nothing different than what she had told Derek. Which was surprisingly the truth, even she wouldn't lie when it came to this girl which was a miracle all on its own.

Derek sighed and ran his hand through his hair yet again. He had repeated this motion about a million times in the last few hours since Kate left. Had he not thoroughly examined Kaya for any wounds or even the slightest cut or injury, he would have still blamed the she-wolf that she had actually done something or that she hadn't taken care of the girl. But she had —which made the wait way worse for Derek because this time he had nobody to blame or hurt to unleash his anger. "No." he sighed rubbing his eyes with his fists. "I don't know what to do…"

"Give her time…" Peter said and put a comforting hand on Derek's shoulder. He was right thinking that Kaya belonged to his nephew now, it was clear to him. He just hoped she was going to be fine. In the mean time, he had already made his move to help accelerate the process if that was even an option…

"I told Derek and I'm telling you again; I didn't do anything to her." Kate huffed over her cup without bothering to look up at him. They had spent almost a full hour talking about what happened over and over again but they were yet to reach a conclusion on why Kaya was still out cold.

"I refuse to believe I'm saying this —and I will deny it if you tell anyone, but I actually believe you." Peter said and Kate lifted an eyebrow surprised. "Don't look at me like that; it's pretty obvious you actually like the kid."

"As do you." she pointed out and Peter huffed waving his hand.

"I'll deny that too if word gets out." he said. "I need you to do something for her." he said leaning forward against the counter Kate was having her coffee at.

"Name it and I'll see what I can do." she said evenly. Usually, when Peter Hale asked her for something, it involved bloodshed and murder or some basket case scenario that would most likely get her out of the pack's good graces and on their very short hit list.

"I'm not sending you out to get killed." Peter paused. "I think." Kate looked at him intently and he continued. "From the moment you laid eyes on her you knew more."

"I'm not telling you a damn thing." she cut him off. She knew how it worked; the second she gave Peter what he needed she would be a lost cause, worthless and practically on death row. Thanks, but no thanks; she wasn't giving it up just yet.

"I don't care about your stupid secret and sources." He said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. He was curious, yes, but the time he'd get his answers would come soon —preferably when the girl in question wasn't in somewhat of a self induced coma. "Use your sources, whoever they are, and just tell me why she's like that. That is all I want from you."

Kate took a moment to examine him before she replied; the Peter she knew usually had some hidden agenda but this time he seemed honest. His vital signs told her so as well —for the first time in the whole time they had known each other, Peter was completely honest with her. "Fine." she said but held up a finger. "First though, I want to know why you care so much about Kaya Blake's fate."

Peter shook his head. "Because Derek cares —and my daughter cares. And I am in the process of making amends..." he sighed "And she made me breakfast." he half-heartedly admitted "Do you know what it's like for the most hated guy in town to get home one morning and find someone cooking for him? It feels homey, normal."

Kate nodded understanding. Kaya had killed a man for her and the very question she asked Derek earlier popped into her head 'Can you imagine that love?' She knew what the simple act meant to him, she realized that because during the short time she knew the teenager she had received nothing but kindness from her —even though the girl teased the living hell out of her. "I'll call you once I have something."

"Thank you."

"Astral projection —she's in some self hypnosis state meets lucid dreaming." Kate said as soon as Peter answered the phone.

"Uh-huh." he replied cautiously since Derek was within earshot. "And?"

"Her mind is processing what happened." Kate explained. "She's practically hypnotized herself somehow to work out in her mind all that happened; she's dreaming Peter, plain as that."

"And?" he pressed her for a way to end this.

Kate barked out a laugh on the other end of the line. "She's fine, safe and healthy. Just let her sleep through the night and she'll wake up in the morning as she usually does." Peter sighed relieved and Kate chuckled. "And, please, tell Derek to stop creeping over her, she's not going anywhere —at least for tonight."

"Very funny." Peter said and ended the call. Turning to Derek he clapped his hands together audibly to get his nephew's attention. "Kate Argent came through for us —again." He said a lot more chipper than before.

The man Peter was introduced to as Blake stood with his back turned to her, his eyes taking in the sight the Hale construction site presented though he didn't much care of what would become of the place. "I was surprised you called." he said with a smile but not really bothering to turn around and face her. "Rumor had it you were dead."

"Wouldn't you like that…" Kate teased and walked up to him as he slowly faced her with a bright smile, throwing her arms around his neck. He returned the gesture by circling his arms tightly around her waist and going as far as smelling her hair for a second before she pulled away.

"You know you were always my favorite Argent." he smiled. "But then again you're gorgeous and Chris isn't anywhere near my type." Kate slapped his arm playfully at that comment. "What can I do for you, Katherine?"

"It's Kate." she corrected even though she knew he'd stick to that weird notion of his and keep calling her Katherine —her parents did that, but only when they were about to scold her. His using her full name was some weird form of endearment only he was aware of, and in all the years she knew him he had never explained to her why he called her that. "I know you're back for Kaya…"

"Uh, so it's true." he exclaimed. "I heard rumors she was with your crowd but I never really thought you'd be there too." It was true, he had heard the rumors, rumors he never bothered sharing with his father among many other things. Sure, his father was important to him but the man had been losing his mind for years now. Sometimes he humored him and played along while others he kept his mouth shut and prayed the old man never found out the game he was playing. "Yes, I want the girl but for different reasons than my father does."

Kate threw her head back laughing, she didn't really believe him. Maybe he was honest, she didn't know, but his father was plain crazy and maybe he lost his mind too. "I take it you know what happened today." she said and he nodded. "She's passed out, has been for hours, and not waking up. We're worried…"

"And you came to me for help. Risky move…" Blake said with a small smile running his thumb across his lower lip to hide it. He thought about giving her a hard time before giving her the answer she came for but thinking about Kaya he refrained. "Her mind works differently than yours —or Peter Hale's for that matter. Whatever it is that's torturing her mind, she needs time to process it away from all of you."

"So she just put herself to sleep?" Kate asked tilting her head to the side and Blake smiled.

"You can say that." he chuckled. "We call it astral projection. Her mind has left her body and roams the astral plane looking for answers to ease her soul. She controls her dreams, the state she's at; she has taken whar she needs to mend her mind. Just give her some time and she'll wake up in a few hours brand new —serene and with all the answers she was looking for."

"How did she do it?" Kate asked but the blond man gave her a look that said 'you know the answer already' so she just nodded. Without another word or so much as a goodbye Kate turned her back to him and started walking away. She got what she came here for, there was no need to stay and socialize more than she already had. They lived in dangerous times; she wasn't going to take any chances.

"I meant what I said, Katherine." Blake said. "I'm not my father; I will not hurt that girl. Ever."

"Why?" Kate stopped dead in her tracks and turned around to face him but made no move to walk back closer to him. "Why do you care so much all of a sudden?"

"She's Phil's kid!" he exclaimed not knowing what else to say or what the right answer would be to her. She always had this twisted logic when it came to people and their motivation.

"She's been that her whole life. So what do you want from her, Doctor?" Kate asked, insisting on getting an answer. It seemed to her that everyone wanted something these days and Kaya Blake was trapped in the very middle of it; some wanted things for her and some from her.

Kate couldn't decide which one was the biggest tragedy for the girl.

"I want what I always wanted." he said throwing his hands in the air. "I want the same thing I wanted for that girl and her mother since the first time I laid eyes on both of them; to be a family."

Kate chuckled shaking her head. "Yeah, good luck with that…" she said and turned her back to the man walking away. This conversation lasted longer than she wanted it to and it was about time she called Peter.

A/N: Any ideas which book Kaya gave Kate? And, of course, tell me what you think...