Hey guys!

Here's another chapter for you. I'm going to try and do a few shorter chapters before I go away to tide you all over. Everything is pretty boring for Cat and Delsin at the moment but things will happen…

Thanks to hooray4natasha and Aki no Joo for the faves and follows!

Jason Grace son of zues: Thank you!
Dimension Distorter: Hahaha you may very well be right. :)

Thanks for reading folks. Please fave, follow and leave a comment if you have a moment to spare! I can't wait to hear from you all!

Peace – Deeny xxxx

Thanksgiving had gone down rather well on the Akomish Reserve. Everybody in the tribe including Caterina was there and everyone had a lovely time; finally getting the chance to be together to eat, drink and be merry. The Longhouse had been bustling with people helping out in the kitchen, setting up tables and putting up decorations. The children spent the day playing games whilst the adults got everything prepared and caught up with everyone. Speeches were made, food was shared and recipes were exchanged. Party games were played and everybody was up drinking and dancing later on in to the night. It was a highly enjoyable day where everybody got to cut loose and forget about work for a little while and have some fun instead.

Caterina was mainly happy at the fact that she could take her mind off Delsin and what he was up to for a little while, as well as being happy that everybody had enjoyed the food she had made for the day. She had spent most of the night before making several large lingonberry pies and several dozen blueberry buns which she eventually had to hide from Delsin; who wouldn't leave them alone and had eaten quite a few. She was however thankful that he was helping her bake so she didn't mind him having some of the blueberry buns, even if he did try to sneak a few for later.

That was a few days ago. Today was the day after Black Friday and Caterina had the house to herself as Delsin had gone in to town with yet more packages he had to post. She'd had enough of wondering what Delsin was up to, so she decided to clean the house to take her mind off it. Caterina did several loads of laundry, changed the bed linen in her and Delsin's room, went around with the vacuum cleaner and polished all of the furniture. She thought it had taken her a while to do it all but it had taken a lot less time. Not knowing what to do after her cleaning spree, Caterina decided she would have a soak in the bathtub and read a book for a while. She had taken to having a lot of baths recently as she was getting better with water; but she could still never bring herself to go swimming in the lake during the warmer months. Deep bodies of water still scared her a lot.

Caterina decided to get out of the tub after she had read a couple of chapters in her book and the skin on her feet had started to go crinkly. Because of her ice ability and her colder than usual body temperature, the water never stayed that hot for long so she would have to top it up a few times. She climbed out of the bath carefully and quickly grabbed her towel off the radiator and wrapped it around herself. Catarina's ears perked up as she heard the front door downstairs opening then closing.

'Cat! I'm home!'

It was Delsin. Caterina quickly dried herself off then changed in to some comfy clothes before she made her way downstairs. Delsin had just come out of the studio and shut the door behind himself.

'I got those extra canvasses you wanted, they're on your desk.' Delsin smiled at Cat.

'Thanks for that.'

'Um, I think we'd better put the TV on. There's been another attack it came on the radio just before I got home.' Delsin continued talking as he wandered in to the kitchen and switched the kettle on to make some tea. Caterina shuffled over to the living room coffee table and grabbed the TV remote; turning it on then flicking to the nearest news channel.

Caterina gasped as she watched what was on screen. The channel was showing aerial footage of a large building which was billowing with smoke and flames.

'And if you have just joined us now, you're seeing live footage from Warren, Michigan where the largest Conduit Outreach centre in the Midwest has suddenly exploded. Emergency services are trying to contain the fire in the building whilst police are attempting rescue and evacuate who they can from inside. Let's go to our reporter now on scene Joe Sutherland. What can you tell us so far Joe?'

'Thanks Amanda. Yes the explosions at the Warren Conduit Outreach centre, the headquarters in the Midwest of Conduit Outreach happened barely twenty minutes ago. Witnesses who were nearby when it occurred state that they felt the ground shudder and shake and the noise was deafening. The local police and fire service are trying to contain the fire and evacuate the building of any survivors as quickly as possible. This Conduit Outreach centre which provides accommodation, training and educational services to homeless Conduits can house up to one hundred residents at a time and has over forty members of staff. Authorities are trying to determine exactly how many people were in the building at the time of the explosion and how this turn of events came to be.'

'It's those Human First arseholes isn't it? It has to be.' Caterina exclaimed. Delsin was nodding in agreement with her.

'It seems so. They've been upping their game recently with protests and attacks; on Conduit businesses, charities and on individuals as well.'

'Well I'm just waiting for one of our lot to retaliate.'

Delsin nodded. He handed Caterina a cup of tea that he had just made which she graciously accepted.

'That would take us right back to the start though.' Delsin added. 'We'd be hunted again.'

'And here's me thinking we could all get on with our lives as we should.' Cat shook her head. She carefully sipped her hot tea as she stared at the TV screen in the living room. Both she and Delsin were waiting on more information about the people inside, if any had managed to escape unscathed or if there were in fact any deaths or casualties.

Humans First had been declared as a terrorist group long ago but nothing ever seemed to be done about them. More and more humans were now getting caught in the crossfire; usually the humans who were involved with Conduits in some kind of way. Humans First had even said in their strange viral videos that Conduit Sympathizers were also the enemy as they were betraying their own kind. But anybody with a brain could see that they were all just plain stupid and they were murderers at the end of it all. It was only a matter of time before somebody retaliated; Human or Conduit. Their attacks affected everyone. Caterina and Delsin could only hope that a fellow Conduit ouldn't be the one to cast the first stone.