Kat looked up at what she expected would soon become their new home, with a look of awe in her eyes. Their last house had been big but this one was more like a mansion than anything else. With three bedrooms, four if you counted the nursery, it seemed like the perfect family home for a particularly dysfunctional group of people. It was perfect.
"Do you want me to carry you up there?" Derek teased, coming up beside her.
"You try it and I'll hit you" She retorted, with an amused smile.
"I'd like to see you try" Derek grinned, as Kat turned to give him a look.
"You don't think I could take you?" Kat inquired, as he glanced towards the crutch by her side.
"Well once I'm better we should have a rematch" Kat suggested.
"A rematch?" Derek asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Don't you remember the first time we met? I threw chips at you and kicked your ass" Kat told him, as he scoffed.
"If I remember rightly, that fight ended with me pinning you to the ground" Derek stated, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"Ah! You must be the other daughter and…daughter's boyfriend?" A very pregnant blonde announced, walking down the slope towards them.
"Uncle" Derek corrected, as Kat could swear there was a slight blush to his cheeks.
"Oh…sorry. God, you look even worse than your mum! How bad was the car crash you guys were involved in?" The blonde gasped, taking in Kat's injured appearance.
"Pretty bad. Are you the owner?" Kat guessed as she received a shake of the blonde's head in response.
"Nope, I just look after the house while the owners are away. Do you need any help getting up here?" The blonde questioned.
"I can manage" Kat replied, as she began limping her way up to the house.
"She's, uh…very headstrong" Derek mumbled, as the blonde nodded.
Not even an hour later, Sarah had agreed to take the house and keep all the furniture inside, which clearly seemed strange to Kacy, the bubbly blonde. Kat had to admit it had everything they needed. Secluded, had a great vantage point of the local area, and not too expensive. The only problem was the bedroom situation. In which there were two females, two males and one machine living in the same house.
"No way am I sharing a bedroom with John" Kat shook her head when Sarah brought up the idea.
"Why not?" Sarah groaned, knowing this wasn't going to be easy.
"He farts in his sleep, Sarah" Kat pointed out, hearing a snigger from Derek in the background.
"Alright, so John gets his own room. You'll have to sleep in my room then" Sarah suggested.
"You're sleeping in the box room so you can sleep on the same floor as John, remember?" Kat stated.
"You just want the master suite, don't you?" Sarah guessed as Kat smiled sweetly.
"I got the crappy room in the past two houses. C'mon, it's my turn for an upgrade!" Kat pleaded.
"What about me?" Derek questioned.
"Looks like your back to sleeping on the sofa," Sarah told him, slight amusement in her voice.
"The master suite has a big enough bed for two people" Cameron announced, as everyone in the room turned to look at her.
"You don't sleep Cameron, why would you want a bedroom?" Kat inquired.
"I was talking about Derek" Cameron retorted, as Kat and Derek's eyes snapped up to look at each other.
"That would be inappropriate" Sarah exclaimed.
"Why? It's the logical decision" Cameron frowned.
"Because she's in high school and he's a grown man" Sarah snapped, quicker than she should have been able to.
"We're both adults, Sarah. I don't really care" Kat shrugged.
"Well, I do. And it's not happening" Sarah insisted, and they all knew there would be no changing her mind.
Kat crouched down to pick up the stack of chips from the oven, feeling the heat from the tray coming through the oven glove. She kicked the oven door closed and stood up, feeling her hand beginning to get uncomfortably hot. She went to place the tray on the counter when she realised her hand wasn't moving. She tried to clench her fist, move her fingers, do anything, but nothing seemed to work. It was like her hand wasn't her own anymore. She could feel the burning against her palm getting more intense, and without another thought, she used her other hand to take the tray and throw it onto the counter. She hissed as she felt it burn against her palm, holding the injured joint to her chest as someone walked into the kitchen.
"Hey, what happened?" Derek asked, approaching her.
"It's nothing. I just burnt my hand" She shook her head, as he curled his fingers around her wrist to look at the injured skin.
He pulled her over to the sink and placed her hand under the cold water with a sigh, as Kat was still too focused on what had just happened to her other hand. After a couple of minutes, he turned the tap off and begun to inspect her hand, patting it dry with a nearby towel.
"You know I'm the one who was looking into nursing, not you, right?" Kat laughed, as his gaze turned to her.
"You wanted to be a nurse?" He questioned, with a small smile on his face.
"Yeah…for a while. Guess some things just aren't meant to be" She shrugged.
"You'll be finishing school next year. There's still time" Derek pointed out, his hands still encasing Kat's.
"Not for me, there's not" She sighed, knowing she wasn't supposed to live for longer than a few more years.
"Hey, stop that. For all we know we might have already averted your…death" Derek exclaimed, grimacing at the word.
"You ever think that maybe the reason I keep almost dying recently is because I'm supposed to? Maybe it's what is meant to happen" She suggested.
"Well I don't care about that. I don't care about fate or destiny…I care about you" He stated, as she smiled lightly.
His words lingered in the air, as he suddenly seemed to realise, he was still holding her hand, and quickly let go, backing up a few paces. It seemed like he was about to walk away when he stopped and started to frown.
"How did you get down to open the oven in the first place?" He asked, noticing she wasn't using her crutch.
Kat looked down at her leg, as she began to feel the familiar throbbing returning of all a sudden. How did she manage to crouch down when earlier on she could barely walk more than a few metres? She clenched her fist a few times, as the joint still felt numb. Before she or Derek could say anything else, they heard a loud crash from the main room and Sarah's cry for help. Derek was first into the room, his gun raised, as Kat limped behind him. Derek held an arm up in front of Kat protectively, as he looked at the man bleeding out in Sarah's arms.
"Check the perimeter!" Sarah ordered Cameron as soon as entered the room, as the machine did what she was told.
"Greenway" The man mumbled, as Derek kneeled beside him.
Kat more or less fell onto her side, as her bad leg gave out as she tried to lower herself to the floor. It made no sense how only minutes ago she was able to crouch down with no problem at all. Shaking her head, she stripped off her plaid shirt and began pressing it against what she expected was a bullet wound to the man's chest.
"What? What are you trying to say? Who?" Derek inquired.
"Stop Greenway" The man choked on his words.
"Who's Greenway?" Derek asked, knowing the man didn't have long.
"Serrano Point" The man went on, as blood began to pour from his mouth.
"The power plant, Serrano Point" Derek nodded.
"Two days" The man exclaimed, as he began to let out a strangled sound.
"Two days what?" Derek insisted as the man began to fit.
"Wait, hey! No, no, no" Derek sighed, as the man grabbed onto Sarah's shoulder before going unnaturally still.
Kat quickly pressed her fingers to the man's pulse but felt nothing. It was too late.
"He's dead" She mumbled, taking her hands away from his chest.
"He's from the future. John must have sent him back" Sarah announced, as she stood up.
"He didn't get very far" Kat stated, as she closed the man's eyes.
Author's Notes: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Hmm, I wonder what's wrong with Kat? Please leave a review:)
olischulu: Thanks for the review! Yes, things are going to start getting interesting, as we explore what's happening with Kat. We'll have some good dream sequences coming up soon. It will be explained why and where Charley ran off to in the upcoming chapters.