Disclaimer: I do not own Kitty, Joan, Sherlock, or Clyde, who is mentioned in this chapter. Which is a pity. He's so cute and I just wanna have him so bad. And I'm talking about Clyde, not Sherlock. But Sherlock is a precious darling. :)
Two days later, and a dozen calls later, and Kitty sat on the couch of the living room of 221B Baker Street, surrounded by her teenage-hood friends: Tyler, Samuel, Timothy, Amanda and Hannah. Kitty was explaining everything to them, and seeking their forgiveness. After hearing her story, her friends were very quick to forgive and accept her new identity.
They were also very agreeable to the idea that they were not to discuss it with anyone else, and not even to discuss it amongst themselves until Kitty was ready for them to. They then all settled down and argued over which channel to watch, just as they did as teenagers. Kitty pulled aside Tyler and Hannah into a separate room and closed the door.
"I just wanted to apologise for shutting you out these past few days," she apologised, not looking them in the eye. "It's just been hard for me."
Hannah and Tyler didn't hesitate to forgive her and pull her into a group hug. Kitty felt as if she were about to cry.
Oh, not again! Kitty thought to herself, snuggling up close to her friends' warm embraces. After a moment, they pulled away and Hannah excused herself to calm the fight that was going on outside over the channels. Tyler and Kitty were left alone once again. They quickly found themselves in another hug.
"Oh, Kitty, it's alright," Tyler soothed. "It will all be alright. We're still best friends. It's alright."
Kitty pulled away, feeling a sharp tug in her heart. She turned away from Tyler.
"Best friends?" she questioned, staring at the wall. The colour was quite nice. It was definitely a colour Sherlock had chosen out.
"Yes!" Tyler said. "We may have been separated for a while, and drifted apart, but we can be really close. Just like we used to be.
"Five years is more than a while," Kitty pointed out, which earned a laugh from Tyler. Kitty then turned around to face him again. "But we can't go back to being really close."
"Why not?" Tyler wondered, his smile dropping from his face.
"After what happened to me," Kitty explained. "We can't 'go back' to anything. We can't go back to the past and re-create those moments. We can only move forward and create new moments, new memories and new bonds."
"So…our bond of the past is just that?" Tyler asked. "The past? And we have to create a new bond?"
Kitty nodded. There was no other way to still be friends with her friends other than moving forward and putting the past behind them; by starting over. Tyler nodded, too, in understanding.
"Very well, then," he agreed. "Let's start over."
Kitty couldn't help but laugh at what he said and the way he said it. It was the first time she had laughed in two weeks. It felt really, really, really good.
"What? What's so funny?" Tyler inquired, hoping that Kitty hadn't suddenly gone mad.
"What you said!" Kitty giggled. "It sounded so much like Sherlock!"
Tyler smiled. Kitty had often talked of him in the short time she had re-united with Tyler, and he knew that she really cared about this Sherlock person.
"Glad I could make you happy," Tyler said, putting his arm around his friend. "It's so good to see you smile and laugh. Did I ever tell you how much I love your smile?"
Kitty had stopped laughing by now and she just smiled up at him and gave him a peck on the cheek. Just then, the landline rang, and Kitty cursed it for interrupting the moment.
"Kitty Winter!" Tyler mock-gasped upon hearing her swear out loud. "Watch your language!"
All Kitty could do was immaturely stick her tongue out at her friend and scamper off to answer the phone.
"Hello?" she inquired.
"Kitty?" Sherlock's voice came through loud and clear. "Are you okay?"
If she had heard Sherlock's voice yesterday, Kitty would have broken down into tears. But, today, since she was re-united with her friends, she felt a bittersweet happiness in her heart.
"I'm great, Sherlock," Kitty replied, smiling. She felt herself tear up just a little. "God, it's so good to hear your voice again."
"As it is with yours," Sherlock replied politely. "Are you sure you're okay? I received your letter, and it doesn't sound like you're okay."
Kitty's mind reeled, and she suddenly remembered the letter she'd sent Sherlock. Dear Sherlock, What do you do when you're broken? Love Kitty
"I, um, have re-united with my sister and my childhood friends," Kitty explained. "And it's made me feel, not quite whole again, but close to whole again."
"Good, good," Sherlock said. Kitty wasn't surprised he didn't ask about her sister: being Sherlock, he probably knew five minutes after he'd taken her on for training.
"How's Joan?" Kitty asked, also missing the good ex-doctor's voice.
"Why don't you ask her yourself?" Sherlock offered. "Just a minute, I'll get her for you."
Kitty snorted when she heard Sherlock bellow his infamous "Watson", followed by Joan's hurried, and somewhat annoyed, footsteps. There was some talking that Kitty couldn't make out, but she knew Sherlock was telling Joan that she was on the phone.
"Kitty!" she heard Joan greet happily. "How are you doing?"
"Not too well these past few days," Kitty admitted. "But better now."
"That's good," Joan said. Kitty could recognise her very motherly-caring tone as she spoke. "You miss Sherlock, don't you?"
"Yeah," Kitty sighed, and then hesitantly admitted. "I, um, kind of make a little cushion of him and one of you."
She heard Joan chuckle on the other end of the line.
"You're going to have to take photos of them and then email them to me," she told Kitty. "So, are you enjoying 221B? It's a really nice place."
"Yes, I am," Kitty said. "And, yes it-"
Kitty stopped abruptly, suddenly realising that she hadn't told Joan or Sherlock that she was residing in Sherlock's place.
"How did you know?" Kitty asked, almost dumbfounded. Almost. She would be fully dumbfounded if she didn't know Sherlock.
"Plummer," Joan quipped.
"Of course," Kitty grumbled, and then heard her name called from the living room. "It's been nice to hear your voice again, Joan. But I have to go."
"Likewise," Joan said. "Well, in that case, you take care, Kitty. I'll expect another phone call, email or letter from you soon. Bye!"
"Bye."
Kitty hung up and walked briskly to the living room, where her friends eagerly sat, having picked out a movie. Kitty groaned when she saw that it was "The Princess Bride". She had watched that so many times, she didn't enjoy it anymore. But, her friends and sister managed to persuade her to watch it, so she did.
Later, at ten o'clock that night, both Lucia and Kitty climbed into their beds in the same room. Kitty had been the one who requested they be close by, which Lucia quickly agreed to.
"Hey, Kitty," Lucia asked.
"Mmm?" Kitty responded.
"Do you remember the Sister Oath?" Lucia asked, smiling. Kitty sat up and nodded, then started to recite it.
"We are sisters. When you laugh, I'll laugh with you. When you cry, I'll cry with you. When you beat the crap out of a guy for mistreating you, I'll join you in beating the crap out of him. When you sit in jail for beating up that guy, I'll be right there next to you. When you get in trouble, I'll get you out. When I get in trouble, I'll take you down with me.
"When good times come, I will stick by your side and remind you to remain thankful, and not to take things for granted. When hard times come, I will stick by your side and support you. I will remind you to be thankful always and I will help develop you into a stronger and better person.
"I will be your anchor, your strong tower, your tattletale, your defender, your best friend, your worst enemy, your safe haven, your personal annoyance and your everything. I will always be there for you, because I know that you'll be there for me. I have been your sister always, and will be your sister always."
Lucia looked as if she were about to cry, and Kitty scooted over to comfort her.
"I-I can't believe you still remember that," Lucia said with a shaky breath.
"Of course I remember, you doofus!" Kitty half-laughed, whacking her sister.
"I just thought…you know, after everything that happened, that you'd forgotten," Lucia admitted.
"Lu, look at me," Kitty ordered softly, and her sister complied. "No matter what happens to me, I will never forget that oath or my sister. I promise."
Lucia nodded and hugged her sister back. After a minute, they pulled away, and Kitty tucked Lucia in, just like she did when Lucia was only a little girl. She flicked off the light and then climbed into her bed and stared up at the celing, which she'd covered with glow-in-the-dark stickers to help her sleep better.
As she stared, she contemplated this road to recovery she'd discovered through her sister. Simply by Lucy showing up and re-uniting Kitty with her friends, she was sure that she was going to heal. She thought of Sherlock, and wondered how he'd felt when he'd discovered his own road to recovery, and how he felt when he stopped using drugs and how he felt when he knew that he wasn't going to use them again.
She wondered how Joan felt after her malpractice (Sherlock had told her). Kitty imagined Joan felt much like Kitty had these past few days, just perhaps on a different scale, in a different way. Kitty wondered how Joan felt when she'd discovered her own road to recovery of that guilt. Was it when she became a sober companion? Or was it when she met Sherlock? If Kitty was gambling, she'd bet on the latter.
Kitty then started wondering about Clyde. Had he been traumatised at all and had to find his own road to recovery? Kitty quietly chuckled at that idea, but highly doubted it. On the other hand, it was possible, with everything Sherlock did to him. Kitty then wondered if Sherlock and Joan had worked out custody arrangements for their tortoise.
There was a lot Kitty wondered about the life of Joan and Sherlock only a week after she'd left. She decided to go to sleep before she started wondering about Moriarty. Sherlock had talked about her once, in great detail. Needless to say, Kitty was fascinated by the woman, even though she'd never laid eyes on Moriarty.
Kitty sighed with contentment and then picked up her three little cushion dolls.
"Goodnight, little Kitty, goodnight, Joan" she said quietly to the likenesses of herself and Joan and snuggled them up close to herself. Then, she picked up her Sherlock cushion doll.
"Goodnight, Sherlock," she whispered.
And, as Kitty drifted off to sleep, she heard Sherlock's voice in the back of her head.
Goodnight Kitty. Sleep well.
-Fin-
There! We are done! All tied up in a nice, neat little bow, just like I promised! Yay! I will hopefully be back with more fic in the near future. If not in the near future, it will be in the future sometime. Anyway, peace out, and I will see all you lovelies who read this at my next fic!