"Effy! Hold on a minute! I can explain!"

Her pleading voice rang out throughout the apartment as her heels clicked furiously against the floor, right in time with her rapid heartbeat, while the other brunette's bare feet didn't make a sound at all.

That's how things always were with Effy Stonem. You never saw it coming. Hitting people over the head with rocks, stealing people's cellphones, the works.

"Fuck's sake, would you just..."

Huffing a bit in frustration, Katie finally managed to catch up to her, not that she ever thought she'd be caught dead chasing her down for any reason.

Effy was sitting on the windowsill of the living room, which had a nice view that overlooked the other apartments. She remembered how exciting it had been to hear about Effy moving into her own place. Surely, Effy didn't show it much, but it must have been nice to be able to live on her own...

Katie was so used to the daily dose of Fitch drama that she wasn't sure how she would cope without them.

But the Stonem Residence held far too many memories for Effy to bear after Freddie's sudden departure, not to mention the absence of Tony. Her house was no longer a home, but a waiting room for her next psychotic episode. And Effy wasn't going to wait.

So here she was, smoking a spliff that she had rolled up just the way Freddie would do it when her hands were shaking from the meds and donning one of his old shirts. Effy was surprised that Katie hadn't recognized it. She was well-aware that they had dated for a bit.

She also knew a lot more than she let on.

Katie moved to stand just a few ways away from Effy, crossing her arms over her chest as she followed her gaze out the window. "Cook just wanted—" she began, but she was silenced when the bright-eyed mystery turned her head and stared her down.

"You didn't come here for Cook."

Effy seemed so sure of her statement that even Katie started to second guess her true intentions. In that small lapse of judgment, Effy saw an opportunity and she took it, like she always did. So she continued analyzing the brunette, just like people tried to do to her. It was a cat and mouse game, really.

"You wanted to know about Freddie. When he'd be back. You still—"

But this time, Katie's stare made her pause. "No, I don't," she said reassuringly with a vigorous shake of her head. "I thought I did. Then I thought I…" She remembered the incident where Thomas was locked with her in the bathroom, leading to her revelation and breakdown about not being able to have children. Her mum knew as well, but that was about as far as she'd let the news go.

"I don't know what I want, Eff," Katie added after thinking it over in her head for a second or two, knowing that she had to be very careful around the brunette. It just took one slip. One little slip and it was over.

Effy stared at the Fitch twin for a long moment, as if contemplating her words while reading her body language.

Katie didn't so much as blink when she spoke.

Instead of replying, Effy simply nodded her head and extended her hand with the spliff to the other girl as a sort of truce. She knew that they were both damaged in ways that other people would never understand. They couldn't. But she didn't know everything there was to know either.

Back when she took part in the demise of her mum's business venture, Katie remembered talking to the cryptic brunette about not knowing who she was, but there were parts that were left out.

She took the spliff and inhaled it, remembering the way that she'd been taught to do so by none other than Effy Stonem herself. It had been a simple gesture, but it was more than she expected. It was just one of those things that stuck with her. A little, insignificant moment in her life that collectively mattered in the long-run. More than she was letting on.

"Why did you come to visit me in the hospital?"

The abruptness of the question caught Katie off guard and she wasn't sure how to go about answering it. That happened a lot around Effy. She'd throw her through a bloody loop and Katie was left grasping at straws. So she took the easy route here, though she knew it was a fucking cliche.

"It's what friends do, isn't it?"

Effy's eyes moved up to the ceiling as she leaned back a bit, turning and moving her legs out to rest them along the edge. "Is that what we are, Katie?" she asked gently, taking the spliff back blindly and blowing out a smoke ring. "Friends?"

Katie rested her hands by her sides, straightening her back up a bit as she leaned against the wall. "I cared about you, alright? I'm not a complete fucking cow," she said with a gentle chuckle, which paid off when she noticed the corners of Effy's lips quirk up faintly.

"Oh, so it wasn't because Freddie asked you to?"

Effy challenged with raised brows, finally lowering her gaze on to the carefully calculating Katie fucking Fitch, who seemed like the only one capable of outlasting her scrutinizing. It was like every time she met someone, it was for the first time. And you know what they say about first impressions.

"S'cuse me, I do believe I have a fucking mind to think for myself with, thank you very much," Katie retorted with a scoff, moving away from the brunette to pace around the room. "And I hadn't talked to Freds then. Nor did I know about Panda's song, I swear."

Effy had to chuckle at that, watching Katie lift her hands gently in a surrendering motion, before offering her that trademark smile. "I'm not sure Panda knew about it either," Effy mused aloud, though she was grateful for her friendship with the strange blonde. Even if sometimes she had to remind herself who was really the one out of touch with reality.

"Yeah..."

Katie muttered, rubbing her upper arms a bit. She looked at Effy expectantly, as if not sure how to approach the situation that Effy had so easily managed to skim over before. She did want to know, even if it wasn't for the same reasons that the other girl thought.

"He left," Effy finally stated after a beat, almost as if she could read her mind. "I dunno where, but… I can't hear him. So he's okay." She motioned towards her head, rubbing her left temple a bit with the spliff pointing away from her, before tapping the edge out the window with her index finger. "He's okay."

For some reason, Effy's otherwise incoherent words made sense. Katie knew that Effy's condition was far from simple and there had always been this certain wisdom about the brunette that she had learned to trust, for better or worse. She licked her lips, before adding, "If he wasn't, you would know."

Effy nodded at this, running her hand down the fabric of his plaid shirt, one of the only things that she hadn't burned from her 'past life,' if you could call it that. She had started fresh after being sent home from the hospital. It was hard starting over so many times though, because eventually you forgot who you really were.

As she looked at Katie, she wondered if maybe this was it. Maybe she was just Effy Stonem. People would always remember the legend, but that wasn't who she was anymore. Not Elizabeth, or the girl claiming that love was a headfuck…

"Effy?"

The voice startled Effy from her thoughts, turning her head to remember that Katie was still standing there. A part of her was surprised that she hadn't left yet. After all, she had what she'd wanted to know, right? "Mmm?"

"You don't always have to know everything, you know."

Katie was staring at her in such a way that Effy found it hard to break their gaze. So who was the insightful one now? Apparently Fitch had it in her too. Or maybe she just knew the right things to say. That must be the reason that she had been able to take the throne from her so easily, though there was no malice in the air this time...

Just a pure, innate sense of understanding.

"You should stay," Effy offered casually, waving her hand around a bit before tucking some of her hair behind her ears and out of her icy blues. "Naoms and Emily are probably rekindling their passion," she noticed the way Katie grimaced at this, which made her smirk in amusement.

"Thought you'd catch on to my bit about brogues earlier."

Katie rolled her eyes at this, lifting her index finger defensively. "You were completely inappropriate! How could you possibly expect me to concentrate on anything when you were—" But she was silenced quickly when a pair of lips found hers, pressing against hers in a gentle, but urgent fashion.

Katie couldn't argue that it was probably the most creative way to avoid her wrath…

That is, until she realized who they belonged to. She momentarily panicked, but her initial sense of surprise caused her to kiss back on instinct, before her eyes widened. She took a step back, creating some distance between them as she reached up to place her fingers against her lips as if she had been burned.

Effy just looked back at her with a curious expression. "Cook mentioned some willy waggle. I didn't want you to leave disappointed," she shrugged, before starting to move away. However, she was stopped by a firm grip on her wrist, before she felt herself being pushed up against the wall as Katie's forehead rested against her own.

"Who the fuck said I was leaving?" Katie replied harshly, a look of hurt flashing across her narrowed eyes as she held Effy's stare. She wasn't sure how she did it without falling to her feet, but maybe the spliff had been her stroke of confidence. Or maybe she had completely blacked out for a moment and just imagined Effy's soft lips crash against hers...

Either way, it wasn't worth dwindling on right now.

Too many people had walked out on Effy and she wasn't about to become one of them. And no, she didn't need a fucking reason either, got that? Good.

"I'll take the guest room. Go make yourself presentable, Stonem. We're going out tonight."

And with that, Katie disappeared from her view, leaving Effy Stonem completely fitched.

A/N: I was initially going to separate this into two chapters, but I didn't see a clean break. So here's probably the most you've ever seen Effy Stonem talk in her life. Haha. Trust Katie to be the one to bring it out of her (; Also, the kiss wasn't planned, but I felt like Effy needed to do that. Maybe as a way of trying to scare Katie off, or maybe just because she wanted to. I mean, since when does Effy Stonem play by the rules? Guest appearances from the others seem very likely in the not-so-distant future (: