AN: Hello! I know that it has been quite some time since I've posted. Life just got busy, ya know? Thank you all so much for your patience and for all of your love for this story. I hope you enjoy this next chapter and I cannot wait to hear what you think. Happy reading!

Katherine made Eddie stop through a drive-through, but it seemed like the universe didn't want her to relax just yet. Just after she had popped her latest chicken nugget into her mouth, Portia Featherington called her. She remembered seeing Marina dancing with Mr. Rutledge during her rounds so thinking it had to do with that, she let it go to voice mail except she called right back.

She let out a small huff before answering the phone. "I apologize Mrs. Featherington. I still had my phone set on do not disturb." She lied even though she made sure to sound genuine.

"I figured it out."

"You figured what out?" Katherine shared a confused look with Eddie in the rearview mirror.

"The reason why my husband has been avoiding you. Why my husband scared away Phillipa's only suitor. Why the casino has been doing poorly and why we haven't produced what we used to. I figured it out and I need you to come over. I can't pay you right now, but I need your best, Katherine, the girls need your best."

Slumping in her seat, she let out a heavy sigh. "Alright. I'll be there soon." She hung up the phone and took a long sip of her drink. "Change of plans, Eddie. Take me to the Featherington's."

"Yes, ma'am. Would you like your emergency make-up remover wipes?"

Katherine smiled, taking the wipes that he offered her. "You're the best Eddie."

Much like when she was called over for Marina's condition, Katherine was pulled inside of the study without much pretense. The tulle of her dress billowed out a bit as she plopped down in one of the chairs as Portia shoved a leather-bound book in her hands. "There it is. All of it." Portia motioned to the book as she leaned up against the desk.

Katherine grabbed her phone and took a picture of the account information so she could use it. Archie, however, had taken thorough notes within the ledger and soon Katherine knew where every penny that Archie Featherington owed was due. "Well, good news is that he hasn't gotten into any trouble with loan sharks and I highly advise against that. There's a reason why they're considered the lowest of the low. Bad news is that even with what business you're bringing in with the casino, you're going to have to file for bankruptcy soon."

"Is there anything you can do?"

"I'll stop by the casino tomorrow. Make sure no money has been tampered with there. It doesn't look like it but I want to see it with my own eyes. From there I'm going to start the online portion of the campaign I created to help business there. It's the cheapest option and can be done in-house."

"And what about my husband?"

"Personally? I would confront him and even offer to take control of things. Professionally? Tell him that he better be there when I stop by the casino in the morning." She closed the book and handed it back over to Portia as she stood.

"You really think I could manage things?"

"You're looking a lot better than he is right now."

"No one can know about this."

Katherine smirked. "Oh, I'm well aware. If this got out, it could be the end of your ties to the organization. You might also want to suggest to your husband to go to rehab or get some kind of help. He doesn't just like to gamble, he has a problem, a very big problem and if it is not fixed, even I can't do anything to help."

Portia nodded. "Thank you, Katherine. For everything."

"You're very welcome. I'll come by tomorrow after my visit." Katherine said before leaving.

Just before she got into the car, she noticed Eloise looking rather upset as she walked across the street. Katherine looked to Eddie and gave a small smile. "Go on home. I'll make my way there eventually."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive." Katherine patted his shoulder before running after Eloise, shouting her name.

The teenager whirled around and ran right to her, wrapping her arms around her waist, crying harder. Katherine held her close, slowly walking with her so they were no longer standing in the road. "Do you ever stop working?" Eloise tried to tease through her sniffles.

Katherine laughed as they shuffled inside. "Not tonight it seems. Now, what's wrong? What happened?" She asked as she led them to the kitchen. Hot cocoa was the best problem solver and it seemed like Eloise could use some.

"Penelope and I got into a fight." She confessed, sitting on the barstool, watching as Katherine moved about the kitchen as if she had been there all her life.

Stopping what she was doing, Katherine came over and wiped Eloise's tears away. "What happened?"

"Finding out who LW is apparently isn't a mature, grown-up problem and apparently worrying about marriage at 17 is. Then just because I'm a Bridgerton means that I don't have to worry about it or something, I don't know."

Katherine hugged Eloise. "I'm so sorry, love."

"I didn't even get to ask my question."

"And what question is that?"

Eloise took a deep breath and pulled away from Katherine's embrace. "Remember when I came to your office looking for relationship advice?"

Katherine nodded.

"It was because I was going to ask Pen out. I'm gay, Kitty and I haven't told anyone else yet so can this stay between us?"

Katherine smiled and hugged Eloise. "Of course. I'm so proud of you and feel so honored for being the first one you told. Thank you."

Eloise held onto Katherine tight, crying even harder. She was so glad that Katherine had accepted her. Even a bit of the weight of holding that part of her truth in lifted a bit. She was a little freer and she trusted that Katherine wouldn't say anything until she was ready. "Thank you, Kitty. This means so much."

Giving her a small squeeze, Katherine pulled back and wiped away her tears before helping Eloise dry hers. "You and Penelope will work things out. I know it. You'll be able to ask your question and things will be just fine."

Eloise smiled, nodding. "Can we have those hot chocolates now?"

Katherine laughed. "You got it."

The two chatted for a while, Eloise telling Katherine her latest theory and how it couldn't be any of the support staff since they're too busy. Katherine even made a few suggestions of her own from what she had gathered in her initial search and from the contact she had with the Nigel problem. With an excited look on her face, Eloise hugged Katherine good night and headed off to bed.

Once she cleaned up their mess, Katherine started to make her way to Daphne's room to check on her but it seemed that Colin and Violet had finally returned home. "I see you had some fun." Katherine joked as she came over to help Colin with his drunk mother.

"Kitty! What on earth are you doing here?" Violet asked.

"I was across the street and thought I'd drop in and check on everyone. Do you need help getting to bed?"

She shook her head waving both her and Colin away. "No, as I told Colin I'm perfectly sober enough to make it there myself." She said before continuing up the stairs.

Colin leaned in close to Katherine as the two of them watched her closely. "Sorry, she had one too many glasses of champagne tonight."

Katherine squeezed his shoulder, smiling. "Don't even worry about it."

"Would you like me to call a car for you? Or see if someone has something for you to change into? It's getting rather late and I think Anthony would have my head if I sent you home instead of offering you our guest room."

Katherine laughed but just then the sound of Anthony and Benedict's whispers caught both of their attention, pulling them away from their conversation.

From the study, Anthony saw Katherine as she spoke with his younger brother and mother. Well, he saw her dress first before her full profile came into view from where he was hiding behind the door. "Shit," he muttered, knowing now there was no way that he was going to get this past her.

"You are in for it now." Benedict chuckled which earned him an elbow to the stomach.

"Shut up." Anthony hissed, hoping that Katherine would walk with Violet upstairs.

Of course, she didn't. Instead, Colin kept talking to her, and then she laughed. He would just have to bite the bullet so he whisper shouted towards them with the help of Benedict who was trying to get their attention as one would try with a cat.

Colin and Katherine turned around at the same time and seeing how the older Bridgerton boys were standing in the doorway, they both sighed.

"Come here," Anthony ordered once they had their attention.

"Did someone die?" Colin asked, looking at his brothers exasperated while Katherine rolled her eyes. There would be no sleeping for her, she just knew it.

The two were pulled inside the home office and Katherine plopped down in one of the chairs. "What have you done?" She asked, looking directly at Anthony.

"Why are you looking at me? I could be trying to figure out an issue that Benedict caused." Anthony defended.

Katherine gave him a pointed look while motioning towards the middle Bridgerton brother. "Ben here doesn't have a guilty look. So please, for my sanity just tell me what's going on so I can prepare myself for however long it's going to be until I can be in my bed."

Colin came to stand behind her chair, hands resting on the headrest on either side of Katherine's head. "I gotta say I'm with Kitty on this one."

Benedict snickered, leaning up against the desk, arms loosely crossed over his chest. He honestly hoped that with Katherine here, she would be able to talk some sense into his brother. It was rare for Anthony to be out stubborned but he's seen Katherine do it before.

Anthony sighed, perching on the other chair's armrest. "I found Daphne and Simon in the gardens in a compromised situation –"

"They were kissing." Benedict interrupted causing Anthony to send him a glare.

Benedict motioned towards Katherine. "You're the one always going on about how she's the best at what she does and you're definitely going to need her to help keep this quiet."

"Fine," Anthony groaned before returning to his story, "I caught them making out and I demanded that they wed, Simon said no, so I demanded satisfaction." He ended with a small shrug as if it was the most logical thing.

Katherine sat up straight, moving to the edge of her seat. "Anthony, please tell me that you did not challenge our best friend to a duel because he was kissing your sister."

"You and I both know that while society has moved forward there are still some backward practices in our line of work. He refused to marry her after he –"

"And you and I both know that this is ridiculous. What you're telling me right now is that you are willing to take the life of one of your closest friends based on some archaic notion of virtue. You need to call Simon right now and rescind this utterly idiotic request. I will not clean up the death and or murder of my best friends."

"But what if someone else saw, Kitty?" Colin asked.

Katherine whipped around to face him. "Don't you dare. If Anthony and I were to kiss, would you challenge him to a duel to defend my honor?"

"I believe we would all say finally," Benedict spoke up, smirking a bit when Colin didn't answer her right away.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath knowing full well she walked right into that. "Then if any of you have been paying attention then you should be saying the same thing about Daphne and Simon."

"He has no intention of marrying, Kitty. You would really have this follow Daphne wherever she landed?" Anthony asked.

She turned back to face her best friend. "You looked past a much larger defilement before. I don't see how this one requires an act of violence when the other didn't."

"That's only because I couldn't find him."

Colin and Benedict shared a look with one another, seeing if they knew what the other two were speaking of. Both looked just as confused as the other so Benedict spoke up. "We only have a few more hours until dawn so a decision needs to be made one way or another so we can get a doctor on hand."

"If you insist on doing this, then I'm coming. Maybe I can talk some sense into the both of you." Katherine said, leaning back in her chair.

"I can't let that happen," Anthony said.

Katherine glared at him, entering them both into a staring match.

"Colin," Benedict said, wanting nothing more than to get out of the room. "Why don't you go get some sleep since you've got to keep mum and Daph from finding out and I'm going to go call our doctor to have him on standby."

Colin looked to his older brother and nodded, relieved. The two left the study leaving Katherine and Anthony alone. A deafening silence sat around them as the tension in between them grew heavy. He knew that she was holding back because they were not alone but now that it was just her and him, he could feel the threatening fight to happen at any moment.

Anthony stood from his spot and went to go pour himself a drink. With his glass full, he turned around, leaning against the cabinet he had his liquor stashed in as he took a sip. He was waiting for her to talk first. Words were sitting on the tip of her tongue, he could tell. Her eyes bore into him and he could see the wheels of her mind spinning as she tried to decide what she would say first.

"I can't believe you." She finally said. "Do all those years of friendship mean so little to you that you can't discuss this with him like actual gentlemen?"

"I don't take this decision lightly, Kitty." He looked up from his glass. "You don't think that every good memory that we've shared hasn't played in my mind? I don't want to do this, but I must."

"You are really going to shoot your best friend over a kiss? I really want you to sit on that. A kiss. That is not worth ending a life over."

"Do you suggest I make her go into hiding then until all is forgotten?"

Katherine grabbed the pillow from behind her and threw it at him. "Fuck you." She said as she stood. "I was pregnant and didn't want to terminate it because I was led to believe that I was actually loved. I had no other choice or my father would have killed me."

"And I would have done the exact same thing if Luca hadn't been a coward and fled."

Scoffing, Katherine shook her head and rolled her eyes as she pulled out her phone. She needed to find Simon and maybe she could end things that way.

"What are you doing?" Anthony asked her, slowly approaching.

"Calling my other best friend to see if I can maybe talk some sense into him."

"Then I guess you're going to try to convince him of marrying Daphne then."

"Is that really the only way that you will be satisfied?"

Anthony nodded causing Katherine to sigh. "Where is this taking place and are your affairs in order?"

"The warehouse and yes." He sighed, reaching out to twirl some of her hair around his finger. "Kitty –"

She shook her head, moving away from him. "No. You are not about to give me a potential death bed confession."

"Benedict promised that he would look out for you as I would. I'm assuming Simon has something lined up for you as well."

"Is Benedict your second?"

"Yes."

"Great. Is he as set on this as you seem to be?"

"And if I said no?"

"Then I would go see if maybe I could persuade him to end things when he meets with Simon's second."

She starts for the door, knowing full well that Benedict was not fully on board with this plan. Anthony wouldn't have been phrasing things this way if he was. Before she could make it past him, he snaked his arm around her waist and pulled her into a hug. Slowly Katherine brought her arms around him, leaning her head against his. At the motion, he tightened his hold on her, burying his face into her neck. "Please stay."

Katherine sighed. "Why are you being such an idiot about this?"

"I have to prove a point. No one, no matter who they are, can take advantage of my sister. If I don't then the whole organization will think I'm some doormat."

"You're not a doormat. I've seen you make deals and take care of those who have crossed you."

"But if I can't take care of my family, then it doesn't matter how I run business."

"Still seems like too high of a stake to prove your point. There's nothing I can do or say to change your mind?"

He shook his head.

"Anthony." She groaned, dragging out the last syllable.

Chuckling, he just held her closer. If she wasn't going to let him tell her how she was the very first one he thought of when making sure things were taken care of, he'd just hold onto her for as long as he could.

"Can I at least get a change of clothes? I'm tired of being in this dress."

Smiling, Anthony pulled back. "Yeah. Stay here and I'll go get some for you?"

Katherine nodded her agreement, going over and sitting on the sofa. She took out each of her space buns and the various bobby pins, leaving them on the coffee table before she sent a message to Benedict, Will, and Simon. She basically said the same thing about how they needed to not go through with this and find some other way to make amends. She even reminded Simon of their conversation about talking to Daphne about not having kids. With that done, she rested her head against the back of the sofa and before she knew it, she was out like a light.

Anthony returned several minutes later with a t-shirt and sweatpants from their college days. Matter of fact he was pretty sure they were the ones she always borrowed. He asked her one time when she was changing back into the dress she had worn to the party they had gone to why she didn't just wear them home. She gave him a look that screamed well isn't it obvious before telling him that he should keep it so she always has something for when she stays over.

Finding her asleep, he couldn't help the soft chuckle that escaped his lips. She had been working non-stop lately and she only knew how early she woke up this morning to get ready for the Trowbridge ball this evening. He couldn't leave her in that dress though, knowing how much she had wanted to get out of it.

Crouching down, he lightly shook her shoulder, earning himself a groan. "Kitty, let's get you comfortable." He told her which got him a sigh as she kicked out a leg.

"Under the skirt." She mumbled, not really moving from her spot and most definitely not opening her eyes.

"You got it." He started with her left leg and then moved her right closer so he could get the sweat pants on.

He got them past her knees and he felt her move. Looking up, her eyes were barely open and her hand was flopping back and forth in the vicinity of where the pants were currently sitting on her legs.

"I'll get the rest. Just help me with the shirt." She then pointed towards her back. "Zipper's there."

He nodded, moving around to unzip her dress. She shoved at the straps, pushing the bodice down, revealing her strapless bra. Once she was free of the top half, she raised her arms, and there came the shirt.

"Now turn 'round." She instructed and he did just that.

Katherine laid back and lifted her hips so she could push the mostly tulle dress off of her and pull up the sweat pants. Once she was fully clothed she turned so she was now curled up with her face buried in the cushion of the sofa back. "Mmkay." She mumbled, drifting back to sleep.

Anthony turned back around to see her pink and blue dress in a pile in the middle of the floor and her curled up in the sofa. He let out a sigh and grabbed the dress, draping it over a chair. He then eased Katherine onto her back, keeping his arm under her knees. He looped her arm around his shoulders and then picked her up.

"No. M'c'mfy." She mumbled into his neck as she snuggled closer.

"You know I can't leave you on the couch. Bed's a lot comfier." He told her.

"My bed?" She asked, sounding as hopeful as a half-asleep Katherine could.

"Not quite. My bed." Anthony said as he carried her up the stairs.

"G'd nuff." And finally, her breathing evened out once more and she was asleep.

Laying her down gently, Anthony then tucked her in, moving some hair out of her face. He wished he could join her in her sleep but what awaited him kept him from being able to feel even an ounce of drowsiness. Instead, he grabbed a book and climbed into bed. It reminded him of how he would do some school work while she napped during the semester they worked to cover up the fact that she was pregnant.

Much like those days, Katherine's head made its way into his lap and his free hand, ran through her hair as he read. He forgot how easy it was to fall into domesticity with Katherine. He didn't mind it at all. He wished that they would be able to be okay after the duel. He wasn't going to shoot to kill. He couldn't kill his best friend. He's killed before, knew what it felt like but he couldn't have his best friend's blood on his hands. He just hoped his aim was good enough to cause a small injury.

Anthony read until the night sky began to lighten just before sunrise. He marked his page and placed it on his nightstand. Then ever so gently he got out of bed, replacing his lap with a pillow in the hopes that Katherine wouldn't wake up. He didn't want her to come. She would do something crazy like run in between both of them as they fired their guns to try to get them to stop.

After grabbing his shoes, he bent down and placed a lingering kiss on her temple. As he pulled away he tucked her hair behind her ear and then slipped out of the room. He met Benedict at the bottom of the stairs and once they both had their shoes on, they headed to the garage to drive towards his fate.