Chapter 55 – Wishes do Come True
Leon was heading home from a long drive he'd taken to get away from his team and get some time to think on his own.
He'd been trying to work out some of his feelings about Kat. He was slightly farther ahead then he'd been when he'd left the house.
He knew he wanted her in his life, and he'd decided that if he could have her he could put the anger aside once and for all. Now he just had to tell her about it, about all his thinking and hope she'd still have him. She'd said once he had his issues figured out to let her know and they'd see. He had his issues sorted out so he hoped she was willing to at least discuss the situation with him.
Nyssa was right; being angry with Kat wasn't worth losing her from his life over. He'd realized that thoughts of her with any other guys made him even more angry. His heart had known she was meant to be his girl, even when his head hadn't been willing to let him see it. Once he'd, as Nyssa liked to say, 'listened with his heart' it hadn't been hard to see that holding onto his anger over what she'd done wasn't doing either of them any good.
It was making them both miserable. The best things in life weren't practical. But it was practically impossible to figure out how to live without them.
He knew that there were still things to work out, like how she and Dom were going to be around each other without Kat going in for the jugular kill and Dom not throttling Kat, but surely if they both knew how important it was to him they'd find a way.
He finally understood why Vince had been so angry and easy to irritate when Nyssa had been gone. When you found that special person it was obvious to you and it made it impossible to figure how you'd go on without them. He was as happy as he'd been in days once he'd admitted that he wanted Kat. It was like a whole weight had been lifted off him. And he knew Kat needed him too. She didn't trust enough, didn't know when to take it easy, when to ask for help. He knew he hadn't given her a lot of reasons to trust him, but he was going to change that. He wanted to be the one she turned to, the one who took care of her. He knew that because of her unusual upbringing she was going to be a bit more responsibility then other girls might turn out to be. But he knew she'd make up for it with her sunny, spunky personality and the way she was so honest about how she wanted him.
On that thought he realized he wasn't sure where on the road he was. He slowed down with a muttered curse as he worked to control the slight skid his car had gone into. The damn weather was absolutely horrid. The rain was pouring down, the night was as black as a sinners soul and the air was uncommonly cold for California. He recovered his traction despite his tires being made for speed not wet performance and slowed down a bit more.
He was having trouble seeing the road through the blinding rain. His wipers made a rhythmic slap slap slap against the windshield as they tried to keep the window clear. Even on the highest setting they were losing the battle against the water that was pouring down on the city, like heaven itself was crying. Leon couldn't remember the last time it had been so cold or wet.
When a flash of lightening hit he saw enough of the scenery to figure out where he was. He knew he should be coming up on a little bridge to cross back over to his own area of the city but he couldn't see it. He slowly rounded a corner and the bridge came into his line of sight. He thought with a chuckle that him driving slow was like an oxy moron but that was just how bad the weather was. He didn't dare drive any faster. The rain had come out of no where. Lightening hit again and thunder rumbled.
He'd just started across the bridge when he realized there was a person up on the railing. He stopped the car with a squeal from the wet brakes and watched as what looked like a young girl did a cartwheel then a back flip up on the rail. He wondered what she was doing up there. She was going to fall into the water and then she'd die because the current and undertow was serious business in this stretch of water. He pulled the car over and hopped out of it into the blinding, slashing rain. He had no more desire to get out of his car in the rain then he did to watch the little girl plunge to her death.
He paused to watch the girl for a moment. He couldn't help himself. She was beautiful in her movements. So graceful and controlled. He watched her do some sort of jump and land on the railing. Then she stumbled and almost fell, to the side of the water not the concrete road. She recovered and began to move again. The driving rain blurred her features and made the color of her hair impossible to discern. He was fascinated by her, the way she moved. She bent over backwards, placing her hands on the rail behind her, causing her back to arch, then she kicked her lower body over to stand back up as he watched. It was almost hypnotic to watch the girl move. She was magical in her poise. Her movements were lyrical.
Then a particularity violent gust of wind slashed rain like little pinching fingers at him, like it was telling him to snap out of it and get the child down before she fell. Beautiful or not, she'd never move that way again if she fell over the side.
Man it was freezing out. All he had on was a tank top and a pair of jeans and he was already soaked through. He couldn't imagine how wet and cold the little girl on the rail of the bridge must be. All she had on were a pair of short white shorts and a light hooded sweat shirt. Where the heck were her parents, letting her out alone on a night like it was? He walked faster, scared he wouldn't reach her in time to get her off before she fell.
When he was within shouting distance he called out to the girl.
"Hey, you shouldn't be up there! Are you crazy? You're gonna get blown over the side!"
She looked up in shock and Leon continued to her side, where he was startled to be looking into the green gaze of the very woman who'd been on his mind, not a little girl at all. She dismounted the rail and stood looking at him, gaze unreadable. She'd yet to speak to him. It was like she didn't really know him at all, but in his anger at her for being so foolish he didn't really notice.
"What the fuck were you thinking Kat? If you'd fallen in that'd be the end of you. No one could save you from that water!" He walked closer to her.
He noticed the crazed look in her eyes, the extreme trembling of her limbs, and the goose bumps on all her exposed flesh. She didn't answer him, it was like she couldn't. He didn't see her car anywhere, and he wondered what she'd been thinking going out in the weather they were having dressed like she was.
"Jesus Kat, how'd you get out here? Where's your car?"
"I ran here. I don't have a car." Kat finally answered and she didn't even sound like herself. She sounded scared and younger then Leon knew her to be.
"You ran here? From home?"
She nodded, shaking.
"That's like over an hour worth of running." Leon was still shouting. "What's gotten into you Kat?"
Leon couldn't understand what would make Kat do anything so foolish. She reached out as though to touch his face and touching her finger tips to his cheek she spoke. It was like she'd needed to make sure he was real.
"He took Sean." She whispered and then as the trance she'd been in mostly wore off and then, as the evening's events hit her square in the solar plexus she doubled over in an emotional pain. She slowly hit her knees and threw her head back. She stared up into the wide open sky. Her hair swung back over her head in a sodden mass, throwing water into Leon's face. "Why! Why'd he have to take Sean? I don't know what to do!" And she broke down into racking sobs, wrapping her arms around herself.
"What do you mean he took Sean?" Leon asked as he hit his knees in front of Kat on the soaking road.
"My step father found me and then he took Sean." Kat answered, finally looking at Leon.
Leon realized how messed up Kat was, and how cold she was. She wasn't talking sense at all. He didn't know what she was talking about. He scooped her up before she could protest and carried her back to his car, setting her inside. He ran around and got in, turning up the heat full blast. He started to drive. He didn't understand a damn thing that was going on, he just knew that Kat was out of it totally.
"I'm gonna ruin your car. I'm soaked." Kat almost whimpered, watching with fascination as rivulets of water left her clothes and hair and started to soak into the fabric seats of the Skyline.
"Don't worry about my car. The car will be fine. You need to get warm."
"Where are you taking me?" Kat asked, her teeth chattering as she quaked, curled up into herself in the bucket seat.
"Home." Leon told her.
"I don't wanna go home. I can't. I can't go back there yet." Kat started to retreat into her own world again, she started to become panic stricken.
"You need to go home. You need to get warm and dry before you get sick." Leon told her. She had to get out of her wet clothes and he'd be willing to bet her friends were worried about her.
"I'm not going home." Kat yelled and went to open the door, planning on jumping out of the moving vehicle.
Leon locked the doors from his controls just as she would have had the door open and Kat started to frantically claw for the lock mechanism. She only knew she wasn't going back to her house yet. Her house where two of her best friends were trying to make a plan to save the third, and she knew it was hopeless. If she had to go back there the despair would just crush her. She had to stay away till it was time for the call if she wasn't going to go completely insane.
"Don't do that Kat." Leon implored. He grabbed Kat's arm, trying to keep her with him and out of her panic. He looked from her to the road and back again quickly, wanting the eye-contact with Kat but knowing it wasn't a good time not to pay attention to the road.
"Don't make me go home yet." Kat countered. She couldn't take it. She'd go out of her mind.
"You can come to my house and we can get you warm there then ok?" Leon would do just about anything at the point he'd reached just to keep her calm. If she didn't want to go home then he wouldn't make her. He wouldn't make her do anything that was going to upset her more then she already was. She was in a mood so strange Leon had no desire to add to it in any way.
"Ok, but only if I don't have to see your team." Kat answered, still shuddering, teeth still chattering but she stopped trying to find the door lock.
"I should be able to make sure you don't have to." Leon answered and was glad the stairs to the basement were close to the back kitchen door. He glanced over at Kat and even in the murky light from the instrument cluster he could tell her lips were turning blue and she was shivering.
He picked up the pace, even though he knew he shouldn't be driving as fast as he was with the weather the way it was he wanted to get Kat someplace dry and get her warm before she ended up with hypothermia. He watched as she shivered and shook and sobbed.
"You wanna tell me the whole story Kitten?" Leon asked softly in his calmest voice. He thought maybe if she talked it out she might calm down some.
"I don't want to think about it right now." Kat answered in a whisper.
She was clearly terrified and that scared Leon more then a lot of other things would. Kat had been scared in his presence a few times but never terrified. But she was literally petrified of something as she sat in his car, struggling not to break down totally and succeeding for the moment.
The rest of the drive to his house was mostly silent. He did reach over at one point and take Kat's hand in his own, holding her small hand against his tight and she didn't fight him or take her hand away. She'd just sighed and tipped her head back into the seat and closed her eyes. Holding her hand was like holding ice.
Leon pulled into his driveway and got out of the car, walking around it to help Kat out. She stood up out of the car and promptly started to fall down again. Leon caught her and just picked her up in preparation of carrying her into his room. She'd never been heavy but she was even lighter now then she'd been the last time he'd picked her up. He worried about what they're fighting had been doing to her even as he worried about what ever she'd been going on about back at the bridge.
"So cold." She chattered out.
"I know baby girl. I know you are. Help me out here and I'll get you into the house." Leon implored and was relieved when she complied with his request and rapped her arms around his neck. "That's my girl." He reassured her and started for the back door. The rest of the team was in the living room watching movies so if he headed straight down to his room with Kat he should be able to have her into his room before anyone knew he was home.
He opened the back door as quietly as he could and closed it the same way, then started down the stairs, carefully carrying Kat to his room. He set her down on her feet beside his bed and turned on the light. Kat looked like death warmed over. Her hair was lank and knotted down her back and her cloths clung wetly to her skin. Her eyes were red rimmed from crying and she'd lost her shoes back at the bridge. He almost cried for her when he took in her appearance as she stood soaking wet, bare foot, shaking and crying in the center of his room. He was about to find her something to change into when he heard a knock at his door.
"You need to be quiet ok?" Leon asked.
Kat didn't really answer but Leon thought maybe she was starting to get dozy from the cold so he didn't really worry she'd start talking to whoever was at his door. He moved to answer the summons, worried about who it could be.
Leon was heading home from a long drive he'd taken to get away from his team and get some time to think on his own.
He'd been trying to work out some of his feelings about Kat. He was slightly farther ahead then he'd been when he'd left the house.
He knew he wanted her in his life, and he'd decided that if he could have her he could put the anger aside once and for all. Now he just had to tell her about it, about all his thinking and hope she'd still have him. She'd said once he had his issues figured out to let her know and they'd see. He had his issues sorted out so he hoped she was willing to at least discuss the situation with him.
Nyssa was right; being angry with Kat wasn't worth losing her from his life over. He'd realized that thoughts of her with any other guys made him even more angry. His heart had known she was meant to be his girl, even when his head hadn't been willing to let him see it. Once he'd, as Nyssa liked to say, 'listened with his heart' it hadn't been hard to see that holding onto his anger over what she'd done wasn't doing either of them any good.
It was making them both miserable. The best things in life weren't practical. But it was practically impossible to figure out how to live without them.
He knew that there were still things to work out, like how she and Dom were going to be around each other without Kat going in for the jugular kill and Dom not throttling Kat, but surely if they both knew how important it was to him they'd find a way.
He finally understood why Vince had been so angry and easy to irritate when Nyssa had been gone. When you found that special person it was obvious to you and it made it impossible to figure how you'd go on without them. He was as happy as he'd been in days once he'd admitted that he wanted Kat. It was like a whole weight had been lifted off him. And he knew Kat needed him too. She didn't trust enough, didn't know when to take it easy, when to ask for help. He knew he hadn't given her a lot of reasons to trust him, but he was going to change that. He wanted to be the one she turned to, the one who took care of her. He knew that because of her unusual upbringing she was going to be a bit more responsibility then other girls might turn out to be. But he knew she'd make up for it with her sunny, spunky personality and the way she was so honest about how she wanted him.
On that thought he realized he wasn't sure where on the road he was. He slowed down with a muttered curse as he worked to control the slight skid his car had gone into. The damn weather was absolutely horrid. The rain was pouring down, the night was as black as a sinners soul and the air was uncommonly cold for California. He recovered his traction despite his tires being made for speed not wet performance and slowed down a bit more.
He was having trouble seeing the road through the blinding rain. His wipers made a rhythmic slap slap slap against the windshield as they tried to keep the window clear. Even on the highest setting they were losing the battle against the water that was pouring down on the city, like heaven itself was crying. Leon couldn't remember the last time it had been so cold or wet.
When a flash of lightening hit he saw enough of the scenery to figure out where he was. He knew he should be coming up on a little bridge to cross back over to his own area of the city but he couldn't see it. He slowly rounded a corner and the bridge came into his line of sight. He thought with a chuckle that him driving slow was like an oxy moron but that was just how bad the weather was. He didn't dare drive any faster. The rain had come out of no where. Lightening hit again and thunder rumbled.
He'd just started across the bridge when he realized there was a person up on the railing. He stopped the car with a squeal from the wet brakes and watched as what looked like a young girl did a cartwheel then a back flip up on the rail. He wondered what she was doing up there. She was going to fall into the water and then she'd die because the current and undertow was serious business in this stretch of water. He pulled the car over and hopped out of it into the blinding, slashing rain. He had no more desire to get out of his car in the rain then he did to watch the little girl plunge to her death.
He paused to watch the girl for a moment. He couldn't help himself. She was beautiful in her movements. So graceful and controlled. He watched her do some sort of jump and land on the railing. Then she stumbled and almost fell, to the side of the water not the concrete road. She recovered and began to move again. The driving rain blurred her features and made the color of her hair impossible to discern. He was fascinated by her, the way she moved. She bent over backwards, placing her hands on the rail behind her, causing her back to arch, then she kicked her lower body over to stand back up as he watched. It was almost hypnotic to watch the girl move. She was magical in her poise. Her movements were lyrical.
Then a particularity violent gust of wind slashed rain like little pinching fingers at him, like it was telling him to snap out of it and get the child down before she fell. Beautiful or not, she'd never move that way again if she fell over the side.
Man it was freezing out. All he had on was a tank top and a pair of jeans and he was already soaked through. He couldn't imagine how wet and cold the little girl on the rail of the bridge must be. All she had on were a pair of short white shorts and a light hooded sweat shirt. Where the heck were her parents, letting her out alone on a night like it was? He walked faster, scared he wouldn't reach her in time to get her off before she fell.
When he was within shouting distance he called out to the girl.
"Hey, you shouldn't be up there! Are you crazy? You're gonna get blown over the side!"
She looked up in shock and Leon continued to her side, where he was startled to be looking into the green gaze of the very woman who'd been on his mind, not a little girl at all. She dismounted the rail and stood looking at him, gaze unreadable. She'd yet to speak to him. It was like she didn't really know him at all, but in his anger at her for being so foolish he didn't really notice.
"What the fuck were you thinking Kat? If you'd fallen in that'd be the end of you. No one could save you from that water!" He walked closer to her.
He noticed the crazed look in her eyes, the extreme trembling of her limbs, and the goose bumps on all her exposed flesh. She didn't answer him, it was like she couldn't. He didn't see her car anywhere, and he wondered what she'd been thinking going out in the weather they were having dressed like she was.
"Jesus Kat, how'd you get out here? Where's your car?"
"I ran here. I don't have a car." Kat finally answered and she didn't even sound like herself. She sounded scared and younger then Leon knew her to be.
"You ran here? From home?"
She nodded, shaking.
"That's like over an hour worth of running." Leon was still shouting. "What's gotten into you Kat?"
Leon couldn't understand what would make Kat do anything so foolish. She reached out as though to touch his face and touching her finger tips to his cheek she spoke. It was like she'd needed to make sure he was real.
"He took Sean." She whispered and then as the trance she'd been in mostly wore off and then, as the evening's events hit her square in the solar plexus she doubled over in an emotional pain. She slowly hit her knees and threw her head back. She stared up into the wide open sky. Her hair swung back over her head in a sodden mass, throwing water into Leon's face. "Why! Why'd he have to take Sean? I don't know what to do!" And she broke down into racking sobs, wrapping her arms around herself.
"What do you mean he took Sean?" Leon asked as he hit his knees in front of Kat on the soaking road.
"My step father found me and then he took Sean." Kat answered, finally looking at Leon.
Leon realized how messed up Kat was, and how cold she was. She wasn't talking sense at all. He didn't know what she was talking about. He scooped her up before she could protest and carried her back to his car, setting her inside. He ran around and got in, turning up the heat full blast. He started to drive. He didn't understand a damn thing that was going on, he just knew that Kat was out of it totally.
"I'm gonna ruin your car. I'm soaked." Kat almost whimpered, watching with fascination as rivulets of water left her clothes and hair and started to soak into the fabric seats of the Skyline.
"Don't worry about my car. The car will be fine. You need to get warm."
"Where are you taking me?" Kat asked, her teeth chattering as she quaked, curled up into herself in the bucket seat.
"Home." Leon told her.
"I don't wanna go home. I can't. I can't go back there yet." Kat started to retreat into her own world again, she started to become panic stricken.
"You need to go home. You need to get warm and dry before you get sick." Leon told her. She had to get out of her wet clothes and he'd be willing to bet her friends were worried about her.
"I'm not going home." Kat yelled and went to open the door, planning on jumping out of the moving vehicle.
Leon locked the doors from his controls just as she would have had the door open and Kat started to frantically claw for the lock mechanism. She only knew she wasn't going back to her house yet. Her house where two of her best friends were trying to make a plan to save the third, and she knew it was hopeless. If she had to go back there the despair would just crush her. She had to stay away till it was time for the call if she wasn't going to go completely insane.
"Don't do that Kat." Leon implored. He grabbed Kat's arm, trying to keep her with him and out of her panic. He looked from her to the road and back again quickly, wanting the eye-contact with Kat but knowing it wasn't a good time not to pay attention to the road.
"Don't make me go home yet." Kat countered. She couldn't take it. She'd go out of her mind.
"You can come to my house and we can get you warm there then ok?" Leon would do just about anything at the point he'd reached just to keep her calm. If she didn't want to go home then he wouldn't make her. He wouldn't make her do anything that was going to upset her more then she already was. She was in a mood so strange Leon had no desire to add to it in any way.
"Ok, but only if I don't have to see your team." Kat answered, still shuddering, teeth still chattering but she stopped trying to find the door lock.
"I should be able to make sure you don't have to." Leon answered and was glad the stairs to the basement were close to the back kitchen door. He glanced over at Kat and even in the murky light from the instrument cluster he could tell her lips were turning blue and she was shivering.
He picked up the pace, even though he knew he shouldn't be driving as fast as he was with the weather the way it was he wanted to get Kat someplace dry and get her warm before she ended up with hypothermia. He watched as she shivered and shook and sobbed.
"You wanna tell me the whole story Kitten?" Leon asked softly in his calmest voice. He thought maybe if she talked it out she might calm down some.
"I don't want to think about it right now." Kat answered in a whisper.
She was clearly terrified and that scared Leon more then a lot of other things would. Kat had been scared in his presence a few times but never terrified. But she was literally petrified of something as she sat in his car, struggling not to break down totally and succeeding for the moment.
The rest of the drive to his house was mostly silent. He did reach over at one point and take Kat's hand in his own, holding her small hand against his tight and she didn't fight him or take her hand away. She'd just sighed and tipped her head back into the seat and closed her eyes. Holding her hand was like holding ice.
Leon pulled into his driveway and got out of the car, walking around it to help Kat out. She stood up out of the car and promptly started to fall down again. Leon caught her and just picked her up in preparation of carrying her into his room. She'd never been heavy but she was even lighter now then she'd been the last time he'd picked her up. He worried about what they're fighting had been doing to her even as he worried about what ever she'd been going on about back at the bridge.
"So cold." She chattered out.
"I know baby girl. I know you are. Help me out here and I'll get you into the house." Leon implored and was relieved when she complied with his request and rapped her arms around his neck. "That's my girl." He reassured her and started for the back door. The rest of the team was in the living room watching movies so if he headed straight down to his room with Kat he should be able to have her into his room before anyone knew he was home.
He opened the back door as quietly as he could and closed it the same way, then started down the stairs, carefully carrying Kat to his room. He set her down on her feet beside his bed and turned on the light. Kat looked like death warmed over. Her hair was lank and knotted down her back and her cloths clung wetly to her skin. Her eyes were red rimmed from crying and she'd lost her shoes back at the bridge. He almost cried for her when he took in her appearance as she stood soaking wet, bare foot, shaking and crying in the center of his room. He was about to find her something to change into when he heard a knock at his door.
"You need to be quiet ok?" Leon asked.
Kat didn't really answer but Leon thought maybe she was starting to get dozy from the cold so he didn't really worry she'd start talking to whoever was at his door. He moved to answer the summons, worried about who it could be.