Kate slipped in and out of consciousness all day, groaning and complaining aloud to her silent house the entire time. There were a few occasions where her movements made the world spin and more than once she had to stumble into the bathroom to hang shakily over the toilet. Sometime in the middle of the day she finally got up the ambition and took a long bath, which managed to help her relax and she left it feeling clean and refreshed. The symptoms of her hangover had begun to fade, although she still felt much worse than she had in a while.

There was a pro and a con about the thoughts going through her head. The brightest spot was that she wasn't thinking about her break-up with Robert at all, and he seemed to be almost completely driven from her mind. However this empty void left room for someone else to butt in, and that someone else was Lewis. She couldn't believe that after almost thirty years of his hinting she had actually said yes, and had last night given in to him. She didn't remember doing this, but then again if the truth was told she couldn't remember much of the night before. She vaguely recalled some random bits of conversation and she could still remember Drew saying that he was leaving. She had gone over to the bar and Lewis had been there, but everything after that was a haze. A blur of murmured talking, although what the topics had been were beyond her, strange emotions, and for some reason she kept thinking of the Beatles.

Must have been one of the songs on the jukebox, she concluded with a dismissive shrug. She quickly forgot about this and returned to the main thread of her thoughts. Sex with Lewis. The very thought made her shudder; she had never imagined having sex with him, he was just too weird for her. He wasn't weird in the same way that Oswald was, he was truly a bit insane, a fact which Kate openly blamed on all of his time at DrugCo. She knew that radiation was going to fry his brains someday, and this became more and more pronounced every day. There were plenty of times when he truly scared her with how creepy he could be. So what in the world had driven her to bed with him?

"The beer," she said aloud. She lay back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling although she was not really seeing it. "I was drunk. I was heart-broken. I was desperate. That was it." She said all of this firmly, as if she were truly trying to convince someone of this, although she was really just trying to quiet that voice in the back of her head that kept asking questions. Questions she didn't want to know the answers to. Like the next one that escaped her and left her stunned over the very possibility. "I wonder if it was good."

She shuddered again and hastily brushed that thought away. The idea of actually having sex with Lewis, not only that but enjoyable sex, was just too much for her to handle on top of everything else. Thankfully she was spared thinking about it by the sound of a knock on the door. Hauling herself off of the bed, she tied her bathrobe securely around her body and started toward the living room.

"Who is it?" she called as she stepped into the room.

"It's Drew and Oswald," came the response in what Kate recognized to be Drew's voice.

Kate paused in mid-step before continuing to the door in a slower pace. "No Lewis?" she asked, trying to keep her voice casual.

"Nah, he went home to sleep," Oswald's voice spoke up. "Are you going to let us in?" Kate reached the door and opened it, stepping back to let them in.

"Nice robe," Drew noted with a raised eyebrow and laugh.

"Shut up," Kate said and slapped his arm, although it lacked its normal conviction because she was afraid if she swung that hard she would fall over. "If you just make yourselves at home, like I know you will, I'll go change," she said and then turned and headed back into her room. She dressed carefully in some comfortable clothes before going back out into the living room. Drew and Oswald were sitting on the couch, talking in low voices, but stopped when she entered.

"Alright, gossip girls, what did you want?" Kate asked with a smirk, collapsing into one of the armchairs.

"We just came by to make sure you were alright," Drew said slowly.

"You know, after last night," Oswald chimed in, although less brightly than normal. "You must have had a hard one with the way you were banging those drinks."

Kate shook her head to clear it, the unintentionally innuendoes in Oswald's statement sending her brain whirling. She forced her mind off of Lewis and then nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay," she said, partially honest. Part of her was okay but the other part was going crazy. She really wanted someone to talk to about Lewis, but who? She couldn't talk to Drew or Oswald, they would josh her endlessly and besides that she knew that they both were still in love with her. Beyond them, Lewis was her only other close friend and she wasn't about to talk to him about it. She didn't even know if she was ready to face him yet. The only friends she had who were girls had been the guys' girlfriends, and each time they broke up the girls just lost contact with each other.

"You sure?" Oswald's voice cut into her musing and startled her back to reality. "You looked, well, troubled." Kate chuckled dryly. Troubled was certainly the understatement of the year, but thankfully Drew came to the rescue.

"Of course she is," he hissed to Oswald. "She just broke up with her boyfriend. That makes people troubled, Oswald."

"Oh, right," Oswald replied, looking slightly downcast. Kate smiled faintly. It was at these moments of naïve innocence that she found him most adorable; the sweet way he suddenly became so vulnerable and shy that was completely alluring. It was one of the things she missed since she'd broken up with him; she hadn't found another man who was nearly as childishly charming as him. Drew had come close a few times, but mostly he had been more maturely sweet than the middle-school romance that Oswald had usually displayed.

"It's okay, Oswald," Kate said with a soft smile and she reached over to pat his arm lightly. A grin formed on his face at the touch and he gave her a grateful look.

"So I take it the hangover's fading?" Drew asked. Kate nodded slowly and Oswald gave a laugh.

"Lucky you, you should see Lewis," Oswald chipped in. "He is completely wiped out. Found him passed out in the booth in the living room this morning and he hasn't been functioning properly all day. Poor guy is suffering pretty bad. I think he drank more than he thinks he did because normally he doesn't get it this bad."

Kate was surprised to feel a flicker of hope at Oswald's words until she understood why these almost came as good news. If Lewis was in worse condition than she was, maybe he wouldn't remember that they had slept together. Then she could escape all of the awkwardness by just never mentioning the incident again. It was a feeble hope, but a hope none-the-less.

"Well, anyway, now that we know you're okay maybe we should leave you to get some sleep," Drew said, shifting a little uncomfortably. "You'll want to sleep off the rest of that hangover so you can get back to work tomorrow. I don't think I could stand another lunch with just Oswald and Lewis."

Oswald chuckled and then paused. "Hey," he said as he realized that was supposed to be offensive. "What was so wrong about it?"

Drew raised an eyebrow as he looked at Oswald. "Well Lewis looked like he was stoned out of his head and kept nearly falling out of his chair while you were trying to liberate the kiddie meal toys from the display case," he deadpanned.

"You should know better than to take him there for lunch," Kate said, trying to act serious through her smile.

"I know," Drew said with an overly-dramatic sigh. "But you can't exactly take the hangover zombie to a nicer restaurant."

Kate nodded slowly. "Good point," she said. "Oh, and this may be obvious, but I don't think I'm going to be joining you guys at the Warsaw tonight."

"I'd cart you back out if you did," Drew said, laughing. Kate gave him a look that said quite clearly, 'I'd like to see you try.' "Ah, I recognize that expression. Time to go Oswald. Kate needs her sleep and I need to get something to eat soon since you got us kicked out of the restaurant before I could finish my lunch."

Oswald grinned guiltily as he stood up. "Okay, get feeling better, Katie-Bear," he said and stooped to give her a hug. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay, see you, Oz," Kate replied, forcing herself to keep smiling even though she had noticed Oswald use her pet-name from when they'd been dating again. This made her a little nervous, as she was afraid that Oswald would take the fact that she was single again to try and get back together with her and she wasn't sure that she wanted that, especially not just yet. "Bye, Drew," she said as he gave her a hug as well.

"Bye, Kate," Drew replied with that calm smile of his. "Get some rest."

"Yes, Doctor," Kate said sarcastically. Drew just laughed and gave her a stern nod before following Oswald out of the apartment door. Once it had closed behind them Kate let out a sigh and leaned back in the armchair. The tension of being alone with two of her ex-boyfriends who just happened to be her closest friends and who were both still in love with her was certainly tiring. As if she didn't have enough on her mind already.