Sky had looked up just in time to see Kathleen's retreating form. He had no idea what had scared her but he figured it had something to do with him or what he was doing.

He stopped and pulled off his boxing gloves and started after her following her straight to her room. He knocked on her door, more forcefully than he'd first intended, but his confusion drove him.

"Who's there?" she called in a manner that reminded him, all too much, of a terrified child.

"Its Sky please let me in"

"No!" she exclaimed furiously, but he knew that her anger was only a front to hide the horror that lay in her heart.

"Come on Kathleen" he said

"No, leave me alone!"

After that he said okay and left too look through the witness statements and listen to her interviews to see exactly what had caused this, most recent, episode. He was reading the transcript of one of her interviews from when she was nine along with the tape of it.

"You said you could always tell when he was going to hurt you, how did you tell?" the interviewer asked gently

"I'd always find him in the workout room beating on his punching bag, and over time I began to expect him to beat me after that…" the nine year old replied.

Sky's breath caught in his throat, he'd been doing that same thing when she saw him; she'd had a flashback of when she was little and when he followed her to her room she thought he was going to beat her up like her stepfather had done. It hurt him to think that his actions scared her that badly and brought back yet more of the horrible memories she wished she could forget.

He went through some of the other interviews and found that Kathleen's stepfather had some disturbing routines when it came to his stepdaughter's abuse. Before abusing her physically he would beat on either a punching bag or a speed bag for a while; before sexual abuse he would go by their normal nighttime routine but he would escort her to her room and she would always hear the jangle of keys as he walked. Over time she grew to fear that sound and her adoptive parents had to teach her that it was okay. Sky was appalled by this development, she had always known when her stepfather was going to abuse her and how.

Sky turned the tape player off and went back to Kathleen's room, and knocked on the door a lot less forcefully than before.

"Kathleen…" he called through the door "I need to talk to you"

"Okay" she said and came out nervously

"Kathleen, I know what happened to you, and I just want to tell you that I would never hurt you, no matter how angry at you I may get"

"I know you wouldn't Sky, but its like I can't let go of what I've been through, no matter how badly I want to." She paused "Sky, you have no idea how badly I want to trust you, but it has become so hard for me to even give new people benefit of the doubt much lest full trust, especially men, and I think you understand why"

"Yes, I do, and I want you to know that if you ever need someone to talk to you know how to reach me, I want to help you… all you need to do is ask" Sky held out his morpher where she could see it and smiled as she gave a hint of her own smile.

She started back into her room, but stopped

"Sky, has anyone ever told you that you look good wearing blue… it really brings out your eyes" she chuckled "and you should smile more, it makes you look really hansom"

"No, actually you're the first, thanks"

"No problem" she went back into her room silently, and sky wondered exactly what was going thought her mind, was she actually coming to trust him, or had he just won benefit of the doubt, he didn't know, but he liked that side of her.

He left her room and went back to his own, pleased that Kathleen was trying to give him a chance, just how much of a chance, he didn't know.

A week later Kathleen was handed an undercover mission where she was to investigate a school for the blind due to allegations of women getting hurt there. She had to chose a male partner who would pose as her husband and keep an eye on things as he would be able to see and she wouldn't due to a special eye drop that would leave her blind, temporarily; until she either morphed or the effects wore off, whichever happened first.

Kathleen found herself completely baffled as to who to chose, she had really began to trust Sky and seriously considered trusting him with the task, but she wasn't sure if she could go through with the mission period, much less with Schuyler "Sky" Tate as her partner.

To Be Continued…

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