.:Chapter Nineteen:.


Katie sighed, folding her arms over her chest. She leaned back against her pillows, bringing her knees up. She watched as Kendall paced in front of her. She raised her eyebrow, noticing him glance at her every few seconds, then would pace again. He opened his mouth to say something, stopped, then opened it again.

"That's right big brother, walk and talk," she teased.

Kendall turned to glare at her, then sighed heavily. He moved to sit at the end of her bed, tapping her feet so she could make more space for him. She did so and sat up, resting her hands in her lap. Katie kept her head low, unable to look him in the eye, despite how safe she'd felt with him since everything had gone down with Bitters weeks before.

It was hard to feel all the eyes on her anywhere she went. She wasn't allowed to be online without a million blocks on her social media accounts. It was just as well, she realized, she didn't want to see or hear anything any of her fans and haters had to say about what happened. The moment the news broke, where the manager of the PalmWoods was caught grooming a young girl…she hated her face being put everywhere.

You wanted to be known as something other than Kendall's little sister and you got it, Katie remembered saying to herself, the moment the police officers had taken her to be questioned. Her mother had been taken to get her injuries looked at, she'd hurt her hand, laying the beat down onto Bitters when the doors to his office had been opened. Katie remembered smiling with pride when she saw his mug shot, all bruised and bloodied.

Mama Knight, for real.

"Katie…" Kendall sighed, letting everything out through his nose. Katie thought about teasing him about that, too, but knew it would be a bad idea. He had to be leaving in a few minutes, anyway. The show must go on. "You know…I really don't want to leave you again." Katie rolled her eyes. "But—"

"—But Gustavo and Kelly will kill you if you don't," Katie interrupted. "And so will your fans. And so will your friends. Life moves on. Blah, blah, blah." Katie waved her hand, rolling her eyes. "It's not like any of this is going to go away any time soon."

"I know but…" Kendall took in a deep breath, clenched his hands into fists. He let out a long breath through his nose and leaned forward, running his hands over his face. "I feel like it's my fault."

"It's not." Katie said it so firmly that she even surprised herself. "it's not your fault, okay? It's not your fault, it's not mom's fault, it's not even dad's fault. And dad…" She shook her head. "Somehow this had managed to make mom and dad actually talk to each other for the first time in years, so maybe I did something right."

Despite the situation, Kendall managed a half smile.

"Are you and Riley okay?" Katie's voice was quieter. What she wanted to ask, what she couldn't even get to come to her lips, was if Patrick was okay. But that was easier. That wasn't directly affected by her. "Are you…going to break up?" She could still hear their bad fight from before.

"We're in a fight," Kendall replied simply. "Not the first one and it definitely won't be the last. It's just because she cares about you, too." He reached out, looping his arm around her shoulders, pulled her into his side in a tight hug. Katie turned into his side, leaned hard into him. Didn't realize how much she needed it. "But what about you?"

"What do you mean?"

She wasn't stupid, she knew what he meant.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" Kendall asked, drawing back so that he could look his little sister in the eye. To see if she were lying again. The thought made her cringe. She'd been doing a lot of lying to him, their mom, herself, everyone around her for so long now…she almost couldn't recognize herself.

Katie felt guilt strike her hard and fast. She'd completely broken her brother's trust, she could see that now. It was hard to get back for anyone, but for her brother, her best friend to no longer have that trust in her…Katie lowered her head. She had thought about lying then, saying she would be fine, that she could handle him being gone.

That she was as strong as ever.

Instead, she told the truth. "I don't know." The words came out of her like a waterfall. "I don't know because…my friends are mad at me…I kept lying to you and mom. I don't know if I still have a boyfriend anymore. The entire world is watching me. I can't walk outside of the PalmWoods without cameras being pointed in my face. I lost my TV job. I…" she shook her head. "I don't know."

And, honestly, she didn't know if she ever would be okay again. Her confidence was shattered, her thoughts of herself being so smart, so powerful was gone. Her mother had said, she thought Katie was smarter than 'that' and while Katie didn't know what 'that' was.

She thought the same.

She was smarter.

Should've been smarter.

But it wasn't all her fault, she understood that as well. Bitters had used her. Groomed her. Took advantage of her. She was a victim. And he was going to suffer the consequences, whatever the consequences were. It was going to take a lot of time, a lot of invasive questions, a lot of therapy before Bitters was charged. They were probably going to go to court, where she would have to explain everything all over again. Over and over and over to the jury who was going to decide whether or not she was telling the truth. Something else out of her control.

"But I will be," Katie finally said. She wrapped her arms around Kendall once more. "Go on your tour, big brother. Don't worry about me."

"That's impossible. I always worry about you." Kendall hugged her once more, then pressed a quick kiss to her head before she could swat him away. "Bye mom." He reached for his mother, who watched the two from the doorway. He placed a kiss on her cheek, and grabbed his backpack—that girly, pink one that a fan had given him ages ago. Katie rolled her eyes at the sight of it.

Somethings never changed.

Kendall waved to his mother and sister once more before leaving the crib, closing the door tightly behind him.

Katie walked over to her mom and wrapped her arms around her, pressing her face into her mother's shoulder. "Everything's going to be okay, mom," Katie murmured. Mrs. Knight nodded and wrapped an arm around Katie's shoulders, hugging her to her side.

"I know," Mrs. Knight agreed. She took in a deep breath and let it out. "I know."


THE END


A/N: And that's the end! I'm so glad you guys took a chance on this story, especially with the plot of the story and the reveal that it was Bitters the whole time. I got the idea for the story after a conversation I was having with my friend on tumblr, Pearl, when we were saying how creepy Bitters was in general and I mentioned the scene in Big Time Video when he was trying to be seductive with the car and that Katie had seen it. What made it creepier was that Katie was supposed to be ten at the time. Hindsight, huh?

Add in the conversation I had with my sisters about how we'd want to see a grooming story about a girl who was popular, sure of herself, had a boyfriend, and still managed to be groomed and that fit Katie for sure.

So, one of the more out there stories I've written but I enjoyed it and the angst with the Knight family all the same. There's a lot I would change about the fic, looking back on it now, but I'm happy with the finished product as well.

Thanks again!

Cheers,

-Riley