Being a Winchester meant being strong, confident, and courageous. Right now, Kate didn't feel any of those things. Being the youngest…the only girl…with two overprotective brothers meant it was okay to be weak sometimes. She relied on them for a lot more than she gave them credit for. As she grew up, they taught her how to fight and how to escape, but didn't really help with how to deal with her emotions, which was currently her hardest obstacle.
She just turned twenty two and things seemed to be going well for her; she had a boyfriend for an entire week so far (her second longest relationship), the hunts seemed to be fairly simple, and she was even allowed to go out to a bar tonight sans brothers. A beautiful concoction for a grand old time, so she thought.
She was in her room getting ready for the evening, taking a break every once in a while to enjoy the fact she could do this in peace rather than be in a crappy motel room with her clothes scattered on the closest bed and one inch of a sink to work with. Her long dark waves fell past her shoulders for one of the first times as she decided to finally take it out of her signature pony tail. She reached for her makeup bag and stared blankly at her reflection, realizing she really doesn't know how to do much makeup. There was never really a reason to wear it and was just an extra unnecessary step in her hectic and messy life.
Her green eyes looked down and finally settled on just throwing on some mascara, leaving her lightly freckled face bare. She shrugged and walked over to her dresser, grabbing a pair of ripped skinny jeans and a form fitting red flannel, then threw on her converse shoes. 'This is about as good as it's getting' she thought to herself as she looked in the mirror.
Hearing voices down the hall, she heard Zack talking to Sam and Dean. Alarms were going off as she rushed out and down the hallway to stop her brothers from their interrogation. Dean looked this kid up and down with his arms crossed in a threatening manner, while Sam tried to be more polite and conversational. When they heard Kate enter the room, all three of the men looked over at her. "Wow" Zack breathed, making her blush. Dean glared a little harder and Zack cleared his throat, "I mean. You look…normal…fine…but like not fine in the sense of looking good…just like…normal" he babbled on, deciding to just finish his sentence and look at nothing in particular the floor.
Kate smiled at his obvious discomfort and looked at her brothers. "I'll be back before two" she said, grabbing Zack's arm and quickly walking towards the door of the bunker. "Excuse me…" Dean countered. "You'll be back by midnight." Sam looked over at Kate, then to Dean. "She's not Cinderella, man, it's an extra two hours" he said, looking into the hardened face of his brother. "Exactly, two extra hours she could be back here and not out…at a bar…with a bunch of drunk creeps" Dean stated. Kate watched the banter between the two and sighed. "I'll be back by one then…okay?" When all she got was a grunt, she smiled and waved before heading out the door.
Once they were alone in the car, she sighed heavily and rest her head back against the seat, smiling. "I can't believe they're actually letting me do this." Zack looked over to Kate and then back to the road. "Yea, they're kind of intense, which I mean I get…you're pretty attractive" he said, earning another blush from her. "You keep sweet talking me, I might actually believe it here soon." He reached his hand over and placed it on her thigh, smiling. "You're everything to me, Kate. You're an incredible woman" he said, moving his hand further up her leg. She smiled a little and moved his hand away. "Let's slow this down a little. Haven't even made it to the destination."
That conversation happened hours ago, where she was now she wasn't sure but it definitely wasn't the car. Her head was pounding and she felt a cool breeze over her. She dared her eyes to open and almost instantly regretted it. Her head felt like it was being split open, she could barely see anything with much clarity. She looked up and noticed she was on the floor, a window cracked open for the cool spring air to brush over her bare skin. Her bare skin. She let that sink in as she looked down and noted she was completely naked. Her heart pounded, her mind trying to keep up with all she was just learning, but still fighting her on this headache.
"What the hell?" She looked around and saw an alarm clock in the distance, it looked like it said four, that couldn't be right. She was supposed to be home by now. Where the hell was she? She forced herself up and grabbed her clothes which were scattered everywhere, ignoring pains that started igniting all over. She looked around for her phone and finally found it. There was no sign of anyone else and she was hoping to keep it that way; she didn't want to know what would happen if they came back. She quickly snuck out of the apartment and down the staircase, being mindful of every painful move.
Though she knew calling her brothers would be the best move, it was one she wasn't looking forward to in the least right now. She looked down and noted 10 missed calls from Dean and 2 from Sam. Her heart dropped. She looked down and dialed Dean's number as she walked out to the cool air, unsure if she even had a coat when she left the bunker. "Where the hell are you, Katherine?!" Dean practically screamed on the other end. Her heart began to race as fear entered her. "I'm sorry…I…I'm…I'm fine" she finally managed. "Look, I'm not sure where I am…can you…come get me?" She knew it was late and that he should be asleep, which would only add to his anger.
"You realize it's four in the damn morning?! You don't text or talk to anyone for hours, Kate!" She swallowed thickly and looked down at the sidewalk, tears filling her eyes and threatening to spill any second. "Dean please…I'm…just tired" she managed to get out. She wanted to say more, wanted to say she was terrified and not sure what the hell was going on. "What cross section are you at?" he grumbled before grabbing his jacket and heading out the door. She gave him the directions and stayed against the building, waiting for his arrival.
She stood there, the cool breeze blowing her direction every now and then, letting stray hairs fly as they may. Her heart was pounding, but not as much as her head. Her body ached, informing her of exactly what happened without even knowing. Where was Zack? Was he responsible for this? She didn't know him too well, but he didn't seem to be the kind of person to take advantage of a girl. Her mind was racing, trying to remember the last thing she could, but all that kept coming up was the car ride to the bar. There was still a lot more hours to account for.
As she stood there, staring down at the sidewalk, she heard a car pull up and "Hey!" simultaneously, making her jump. She looked up to see Dean and walked slowly to the car, not wanting him to catch her limping or tip him off in any way. As soon as she carefully sat down, he started in on her. "Where the hell have you been Katherine?! Sam and I have been up for hours trying to reach out, worried sick. We couldn't trace your phone…which is another discussion we need to have. That's exactly why we keep that function going, Kate, so we can find you when we need to! Do you know what dad would say if he were here?!"
Kate just sat there, letting him ramble on as she looked at her knees, playing with her fingernails a little as he continued on. "That's the first and last time you'll ever be allowed out to a bar. No dates, nothing for a month. I'm serious Kate, we have rules for a reason." If the situation wasn't so serious, she would've laughed at him giving her a grounding, she was in her twenties, but when Dean put his foot down, there was no arguing about it. "Well? What were you doing all night that you couldn't answer any phone calls?" Her mind was racing, trying to come up with something. "We were just out…longer than we thought, got carried away hanging out with people, went to a house party…" She pathetically ended, knowing it wasn't much detail to go on. Dean scoffed and shook his head. "You're not much of a partier, doesn't sound like a likely story. Want to try again?" She didn't dare look at him, knowing that her face was probably bruised to hell as she felt a black eye and her cheek was swollen, and she wasn't very good at lying either. "No. That's it" she said.
Dean just blared his music after that, knowing he wasn't going to get much else out of her. When they pulled into the drive of the bunker, he stopped and looked at her. She continued to look down at her legs, hoping to avoid eye contact. "Look at me" he said. When she didn't look, he let out a long huff. "Katherine Deanne look at me" he said in a stern tone. She turned her head just enough that she had an eye on him. Thankfully it was pitch black where they were and she could just make out the outline of his face and she knew he wouldn't be able to see her fully. "I know you're lying to me, I don't know why. But I expect you to tell me later. It's late, we're both tired and need to rest. You're not getting out of this easily, Kate. So be prepared." He left the car, leaving her in the dark alone.
Her mind raced and her heart started to also as she thought about that night. For the first time, fear took over her as she sat in the dark car; she was irrationally thinking about the person being in the back seat. What if it wasn't just one person? She quickly got out and went into the bunker, making sure Dean wasn't lingering around before she headed straight to her room. She saw her face in the mirror and nearly broke down. She had been beaten up before during hunts, but this…this was different, more personal. Her right eye was turning black and blue, her lip was split open. Her cheek was more swollen than it felt before. She laid down in bed and curled up, leaving the light on and for the first time in years, she cried herself to sleep.
When she woke up later in the day, she looked worse. There was absolutely no getting around it. She took out her phone and saw a message from Zack. 'I'm so sorry' the message said, followed by four more messages. 'You don't understand. I needed to do this.' 'You mean so much to me. I'm so sorry.' 'I didn't think they'd go through with it.' 'Please call me.' She sighed and picked up the phone, calling Zack. He answered almost immediately. "Kate. I'm so sorry. Look, Andrew was way out of control with beer pong. I don't know where you guys ended up. I looked all over for you, I lost my phone and couldn't call anyone…" Kate furrowed her brows, trying to keep up with him. "What? Who's Andrew?" she said softly. He was silent for a moment, then continued. "My buddy from school. He came out with us. We were playing beer pong and he was a little too close to you, I told him to back off a few times and he shrugged it off. You went to the bathroom at some point and he said he would go look for you while I paid the tab and I never saw you again. I tried looking all over for you and then finally found my phone. Look I'm so sorry for him if that's why you left."
He continued on and on, but she wasn't really listening as she started piecing things together. This Andrew must've slipped something in her drink, found her passed out somewhere in the back and took her back to his place. The thought made her sick to her stomach. She shook her head and just hung up on Zack. She couldn't believe it. This guy raped her. It was a thought she couldn't let go of. She felt numb if she even felt anything at all. When she heard the door open, she looked up and saw Sam standing in the doorway. "Hey. He's still…" When he took a look at her face, he grew more concerned. "What happened to you?" He walked into her room and she looked down at the floor to her feet. "Nothing. Just…drunken stupidity is all" she mumbled. He took her chin and carefully turned her face towards him. "You look awful, what happened?" She shrugged and shook her head. "Like I said, drunken stupidity…don't remember much" she stated, which wasn't really lie. There was no way she could let her brothers know what happened. It was so embarrassing and she knew they would never let her go anywhere ever again.