"Just shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up. Everybody, just everybody just shut up, please shut up. Jesus, you guys are worse than the drugs." Klaus groaned.

Ben had taken a place perched on the bed by Kat's chair as Klaus dealt with the gruesome spirits that surrounded them.

"He's doing well, all things considered." Ben said to his sister.

Kat had almost fully healed from her wounds, but she was still weak, thanks to the severity of what she had been healing. She looked up at him and nodded. "Yeah. I just hate that it took this for him to get cleaned up."

Hazel and Cha-Cha exited the bathroom with cold looks. Hazel looked slightly softer, something that did not escape Kat's attention.

"Swiss Alps, huh? Which one are you? Cha-Cha or Hazel?" Klaus asked smugly.

"Hazel."

"Jan Mueller. Remember him? Swiss Alps. Him and his wife were coming back from a ski trip."

"I remember. Forward. Reverse!" Cha-Cha exclaimed, the memory playing back in her head.

"Yeah, that's it! Yeah! And his wife escaped down an alleyway. He says to say thank you."

There was the bombshell.

"What's he talking about?"

"I don't know." Hazel said, attempting to brush it off.

:He was so grateful to you, Hazel, for having spared his wife. You know, there may be hope for him yet. Don't you think?" Klaus said with a chuckle.

"Bathroom, now!" Cha-Cha snapped.

The door slammed behind them, and Ben looked over at Klaus with a proud smile. "Nicely done."

"Thank you."

Kat smirked at Klaus. "You're doing pretty good. But you're in deep shit."

"What. Why?" Klaus asked, suddenly panicked that his favorite sibling was unhappy with him.

"Why didn't you tell me you could see Ben all this time? How long has it been?" Kat asked, pained. Klaus knew how much it broke her when Ben died.

"I'm sorry, honey. I just needed to make sure it wasn't a fluke. It's not something I kept from you in order to intentionally hurt you. I love you to bits." Klaus said, wanting nothing more than to reach over and give her a tight hug.

"I know. I love you too. More than you will ever know." She said, her chest tight. Why did this moment feel so much like they were saying goodbye?

Klaus clenched his jaw as the spirits riled up again. "Jan says you're a real mensch, Hazel." He called. "He said you were such a great-"

Cha-Cha stormed out of the bathroom and grabbed the tape, ripping off a piece.

"No. No! No!" Klaus managed to say before she slammed the tape over his mouth.

"Ya know, you're a real dumb bitch. You think that just because you told Five we're here means that he's gonna come for us?" Kat scoffed, causing Cha-Cha to stop in her tracks and smile wickedly.

"Oh, sweetie." She said condescendingly. "We didn't say anything about you. Because the only thing they're gonna find of you is a body once I've figured out how to put you down permanently." She ripped off another piece of tape and slammed it on Kat's face, savoring the way the girl's face fell and turned pasty white.

"Now shut up!" She yelled at the siblings, slamming the bathroom door behind her.

Klaus took this chance to scoot his chair towards the window in hopes of catching someone's attention. A shadow passed the window and Klaus immediately took action, screaming as loudly as possible with the tape on his mouth. Katherine slowly scooted her way over to him, yelling the best she could.

Klaus began slamming his head off the table, and Kat shrieked in shock.she turned to that her hand was brushing against his arm, hoping to keep him from severely hurting himself. She was so drained she didn't know if it was actually going to work, but even a little healing was better than none.

The sounds of a key card unlocking the door reached Kat's ears and she could have cried. She looked up as the door opened to see that their savior was none other than Eudora Patch. They made eye contact and both panicked. Patch because of how much blood Kat was covered in, and Kat because she knew that Cha-Cha would not hesitate to kill Patch if they were caught.

"I'm Detective Patch." Eudora introduced herself to Klaus as she cut the siblings from their restraints. Klaus yelped quietly as the take was ripped from his mouth. He and Kat both shakily stood and gripped eachother tightly.

"Go. Through the vent. I'll be right behind you." She promised.

"But-" Klaus attempted to protest.

"Go! Hurry up!" She pressed as the bathroom door creaked open.

"Police! Drop the gun, or you're going down!" Eudora yelled.

Klaus quickly made his way into the vent, and Kat looked at Patch. They nodded as Katherine took the knife from the Woman's pocket.

"I'm coming out. Don't shoot." Hazel announced.

"Hands behind your head, asshole."

"Okay. Just don't shoot."

"Patch, there's two of th-"

Before Kat could finish her sentence, a gunshot rang through the air and Eudora's gun dropped from her hand. Kat gasped and spun around, throwing the knife without hesitation. Milliseconds later, Cha-Cha fired her gun once more, this time aimed at Katherine's head. Call it fate, destiny, or dumb luck, the knife found purchase in Cha-Cha's shoulder causing the trajectory of the bullet to stray just the slightest. It was a clean shot across Kat's temple, which resulted in a fair amout of blood. She crumpled to the ground her head in excruciating pain.

Her only relief was the fact that she was about to pass out.

FLASHBACK

"This is Claire." Allison said proudly, holding her daughter in her arms. "You wanna hold her?" She asked.

Katherine looked at the baby in wonder and nodded. She was so tiny and beautiful. Like a porcelain doll. "She's perfect."

"You know, you and Diego are the only ones who have come to see us?"

"Allison, as much as we have fought and disagreed, we're family. Nothing is gonna change that. And family supports eachother." She said with a nod before looking down at Claire. "We're family. We have to stick together."

X--X

"I need your help. I need you to tell me what girls like." Luther implored.

"You mean what Allison likes?"

"Come on Katherine, throw me a bone here."

Kat laughed quietly and shook her head. "Something meaningful. Something that she can look at and always be reminded of you."

"Like a bracelet?"

"Try a necklace. She's more likely to wear it."

Luther smiled brightly and nodded. "I know just what to get. Thanks, Kat." He said, giving her a quick hug.

"No problem." She said with a faint smile.

X--X

Ben sat on his bed and groaned. "I'm stupid."

"You're not stupid. You just haven't had a chance to use your powers that much. You have to give it time, Ben." Katherine assured him.

"I'm sorry you got shot."

"Hey, no harm done. Healed right up. Plus now I know I can heal from gunshots. Pretty cool, huh?"

She and Ben both laughed, glad for the distraction.

X--X

Klaus knocked on the door to the gym, soaking wet from the rain. Kat offered to see what the noise was since Diego had onky gotten home about an hour prior.

She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, which widened as she saw her brother's face in the window. She hurriedly unlocked the door and ushered him in, then relocked the door. "Oh my God, are you okay?"

"Raining. Cold. Hungry." He said, shivering. She dragged him to the bathroom and peeled his coat off, then wrapped a towel around him.

"I'll take care of you. Just relax a bit, okay?"

He nodded and pulled the towel around himself tighter, looking up at her in admiration. His savior. His sister. His best friend.

X--X

"Come on, Five, you've got this. Just a few more times." Kat encouraged.

Five nodded, once again jumping from one side of the room to another. Kat smiled brightly.

"Keep this up and you'll be ready to practice time jumps pretty soon."

"You know Reginald will never let me."

"You can try, though. Reginald doesn't control your life, ya know."

"I know. I just want him to see I can do it." He said, sittin on the floor beside her.

"I understand that all too well. But I believe in you. Just promise me that no matter when or where you jump, you'll always come back to us. Promise you won't leave me." She implored.

He looked up at her and grabbed her pinky with his own as she had done to him many times. "I promise."

X--X

Vanya watched in shocked silence as Katherine stood in front of her, cradling a now throbbing hand. It was healing, but Christ did it hurt.

"I don't know who you think you are but you better watch yourself before you get into a fight you won't win." Kat said, standing in front of the man who thought it was a good idea to lay a hand on the unpowered sibling. His nose was definitely broken, but he looked scared enough.

Especially considering Luther, Diego, Allison, and Klaus were all now standing behing Katherine.

"You might want to listen to the lady before you get hurt even worse." Luther piped up from the back of the group. For a bunch of sixteen year old kids, they were rather intimidating.

The man fled into his truck and didn't look back.

"Are you okay?" Kat asked, looking worriedly at Vanya.

"Yeah. Thanks for, uh, for doing that. All of you." She said awkwardly.

"C'mon, V. We're family, it's what we're here for." Kat said, throwing an arm around Vanya. "Now let's go inside and eat till we puke, yeah?" She chuckled.

X--X

"Diego?"

"Katherine?"

"When did you know?"

"Know what?"

"That our family was screwed."

"Baby girl, our family has always been screwed. But you, you've always had this ability to just keep us together when we needed strength. You're like an elixir that somehow manages to do the impossible and heal us when it seems impossible to do so."

END FLASHBACKS

Diego ran into the motel room calling out for his brother. "Klaus?"

When he saw the scene that was laid out in the room, his heart dropped to the floor. "No, no, no! Eudora! No, no, no! Eudora! Why didn't you wait?"

Tears stung his eyes as he mourned over the death of his friend.

But that was nothing compared to the way his body reacted to looking up and seeing Katherine lying on the floor in a puddle of what appeared to be her own blood.

"Kat?" He practically whimpered as he bolted over to her. He turned her over to see an ungodly amount of blood, both dry and fresh, accompanied by a myriad of bruises, tears in her clothes, and other signs thag she had been severely injured. But why wasn't she healed? What had happened to her?

Diego cradled her face in his hands and wiped away what blood he could as the sound of sirens reached him. He could feel a faint pulse when he checked, but it was nearly impossible to detect.

"Kat? Kat b-baby, please. We gotta go, okay? We-we-we can't be here when they come, o-okay? I've gotta get you out of here. We're gonna ge-get back to the A-Academy and I'm gonna t-t-t t-take care of you, I pro-pr-promi-promise. I'm gonna make everyth-thing okay. You're gonna be okay."