Kristen trudged up the steps to her apartment, fumbling with the keys to let herself in, dropping them once as her hands started shaking worse than before, before closing and locking the door behind her, flipping on the lights. Once she was alone, what was left of her composure abandoned her, and she leaned back against the door sobbing.

Edward had nearly died. He was probably still injured now. They'd killed a man. Edward had locked her downstairs, and she still couldn't get over that. Then she'd had to dismember the second one… She still couldn't get the images of that out of her head. And now the Penguin was involved and they'd yelled at each other, and she still couldn't process Dougherty … She flinched as a shadow moved across the wall, but it was just a car passing by outside the window.

She couldn't figure this out if she didn't have a chance to think, but … she didn't want to be alone right now. She went to the phone, hands still shaking as she dialed a number she hadn't in months.

"House of boys, this is Josh!" Came a clearly feminine voice from the other side of the phone, imitating a stereotypical gay voice. Music blaring in the background making it hard to understand.

Kristen unexpectedly broke into an abrupt laugh, though the tears didn't stop coming. "Hi Deidre," she said, struggling to keep her voice calm. She was so relieved that she picked up. Though now that she had, Kristen wasn't quite sure what to say. It wasn't as if she could tell her about what was happening with Edward. "I'm… sorry it's been so long since I've called." She'd started to fall out of touch about the time she'd started dating Flass, since she'd been afraid Deidre might criticize the relationship, and had stopped contacting her entirely while she was with Dougherty, who tended to interrogate her about every phone call. She felt a pang of guilt when she realized that it had been months now. "Are you in town?" For all she knew, Deidre could have decided to travel again.

"Kristen?" Deidre said, plugging her other ear with her finger. "Hold on, I can't hear you." She said loudly over the music. "Let me get outside." She said moving through the crowed and heading towards the entrance. Once she was outside she moved to the side of the building. She could still hear music from inside but at least it was much quieter. Muffled.

"Kristen?" She asked again once she could hear her.

"Hi …" she said, her voice still shaky with the threat of tears, despite her best efforts. "Do… do you have time to talk? It sounds like you're kind of busy."

"No, I can talk. What's going on? I haven't heard from you in forever. I tried calling but you never answered." She said leaning against the wall.

"I'm sorry about that," she said. In hindsight, that had probably been a sign of how wrong things were. "I really am … I just … got into a bad relationship. And then another one. And … I don't know. Things just … spiraled out of control. I'm sorry. I should have called you a long time ago." She was crying again and she felt like a complete idiot.

"It's okay. Believe me I'm sure I've done worse. Are you …." Deidre paused. "Are you crying? Kristen dear, what's wrong?"

"Sorry … There's … just a lot going on right now. I've gotten really good at fucking things up lately." And she couldn't even really explain what was going on now. Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea… Deidre hadn't heard from her in forever, and now she was calling her in tears like this, interrupting whatever she was doing this evening.

"Kristen. You've always been good at fucking things up." Deidre said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood. "Do you want to get together? We can talk in person?" She asked.

Kristen hesitated for a moment. "I'd like that," she said. "Are you sure you're not busy?"

"Naw, I had a date but she took off as soon as we got here. Where do you want to meet?" Deidre asked.

"Would you mind coming over here?" she asked tentatively.

"Yeah, I can do that. Do you still live at the same place?" She asked starting to walk down to the street attempting to hail down a cab.

"Yeah, same place," Kristen said, wincing at the realization that she'd been out of touch long enough that it might not have been. "Thanks, Deidre… I really owe you."

"I'll see you in a bit." She said pausing a moment. "Just hang in there huh. Don't do anything stupid."

"Don't worry," Kristen reassured her. "I'm all out of stupid things to do right now."