After everything was deactivated and put away, Liam left to finish his chores, Sandy returned to her desk and Katie brought Kendall to her office, leaving the door open so Rango could go in and out. No one would be bothering them so they were free to talk in privacy.

"So what's going on? Why are you in Connecticut on Christmas Eve?"

"I was doing some thinking and some discussing with the guys and I just…I don't know really. Our conversation that we had a few nights before you left really sticks in my mind. I had no idea that a person could suffer so much and still stand alone."

"It's not easy but when you learn that you are all alone, you have to rely on yourself to keep going."

"But you don't deserve that!"

"It's the way life works sometimes, it's not always fair." she replied. "Hear me out. I'm grateful that you came to visit but why did you come all this way? I still don't understand why this couldn't have been done over skype or something."

"Do you know how long it took me to find this place?! I had to take a train out here and I just really wanted to see you. I still have strong feelings for you, even after you turned me down. I know how you feel about the whole dating and relationship thing but I still would like to take you out to a nice dinner. Maybe would could go out for a nice Christmas Eve lunch instead, before everything closes?"

"I suppose I could take a break. I'm not going to get anything done right now anyway; I'm still worked up from all the activity a little while ago."

"About that…can I be added to a 'no kill' list or something so I'm not greeted by 20 jaws of death?"

"Haha, yeah, I'll get you a badge made up and bring it next time I'm in LA. For now, just wear this lanyard." She said, opening her drawer and pulling out an orange visitor pass. Kendall tucked it into his pocket before getting up.

"Let's get some lunch?" he asked.

"Sure." she said with a smile.

She followed him out to lock her office behind her and then lead him down the halls to the main door, waving farewell to Sandy. Since there was a threat of snow, Katie told Kendall to pull his rental car into the garage for protection. She opened the garage door up and he pulled inside; she followed it until he pulled into the stall before she kept going to her stall. Kendall was just climbing out of his car as the roar of her engine filled the small space. She pulled out of the stall gracefully, her sleek and shiny car pulling up beside him. He hopped in and she drove off across town to the fanciest restaurant she knew of, per Kendall's request.

The place was just opening up for the day and wouldn't be busy for quite some time since it was more popular for the late lunch and dinner crowds. They were seated in a side room, kept away from the upper class clients that were coming it. Although both of them were celebrities, the staff and guests had no idea who they were and just treated them as random teenagers who failed to dress appropriately for the environment. Katie never had a problem before and didnt mind being away from all the snobby rich people anyway. They both ordered a full course meal, Kendall ordering fish and Katie went with an old fashioned Chicken Parmesan.

They spent the after noon just talking more about everything and anything. Kendall wanted to be supportive but he also wanted to know more about Katie than she was letting on. He wanted to know exactly what was going on in her head. He was prepared for a lot of stuff but he was prepared for everything that he heard. Katie spent years being tormented verbally and had friends but never a true friend until high school but soon the problem grew and she was cut off from the world she so desperately wanted to cling to and fit in. As she got older the problems never went away, she was constantly bullied by everyone and the tension at home was only getting stronger. She was always caught in the middle or in a corner and had no way out; no way to vent her feelings or frustrations and was forced to let them build until she could stand it no more. So many times she wanted to just quit life but not die, she just wanted to stop everything from moving forward.

She became so mentally and emotionally damaged that she just couldn't function anymore. She spiraled into a depression, long before Walter started abusing her but yet she hung on, looking for the light at the end of the tunnel that supposedly everyone had. She was constantly pushed under her own sea of sorrow and pain but managed to stay afloat for all these years. She lost most of her friends when she attended college and although she tried to make new ones on campus, no one wanted to make that connection with her. She had been hurt so many times before and didn't want to start over so she shut herself off from the world as she trudged through life, hanging on to a tiny thread of hope that someday things might get better.

Things only ever got worse for the most part, usually after she took one small step forward, she'd end up 5 large steps back. She was scared to open up to anyone or even talk to a person. She grew to hate social interaction out of fear and a few times had actually gone mute but was only ridiculed more for her lack of ability to speak. She just gave up with socializing and felt hurt the more she was ignored, even by her own family. She felt useless to everyone around her and waited so long for someone to swoop in and save her from her misery but she knew that a day like that would never come. Everyone is supposed to live happily ever after but she didn't think she was going to get one.

"Not everyone gets to the happy ending in their story. I decided a long time ago that I am one of those people. I can try with all my mite to try and make something of myself but I'd never be happy. I cant change the way I am and I'm not all that happy with it but it is who I am and I've learned to deal with it." she said.

"But you don't deserve it! Why cant you see that?" Kendall started "You are the nicest person that I have ever met. You have the biggest heart and the kindest soul. You always want to see others smile but you never take time to smile yourself."

"I make others smile because I know what it's like to be sad. I know what it feels like to be told I'm useless or that I will never amount to anything. I know that pain and I would never want to wish it onto somebody else. Pain of the heart hurts the most and it is the hardest to fix and even the ones who did this to me don't deserve the pain that I'm feeling and have gone through."

"If they felt it, then they'd know to stop. They'd know what they did to you and feel guilty."

"Everyone has a purpose on this planet, somehow and some way. It doesn't matter what religion you follow, what god you worship or what you believe; each of us has a story to go through and complete. I don't know what mine is but somehow, this all fits in it. Maybe I'm not supposed to have a happy ending, you know?"

Kendall was about to respond when their waiter brought the check. Kendall picked it up and slid his credit card inside, promising Katie that he really meant paying for lunch. Once he signed the receipt, he grabbed his stuff and followed Katie out the door. The ride back to the Academy felt long since it was so quiet; Kendall had no idea what to say or even where to begin and Katie was just having an internal panic attack from regret that she told him so much and that he paid for lunch. She worried that he was going to expect something from her later that she had no intention of giving. She pegged Kendall as the respectable type and that he wouldn't ask for sex or anything like that but she wasn't sure, she did say she couldn't trust people after all.

She just worried that she said too much and sounded petty. Her abuse was nothing compared to big problems of the world. She had a roof over her head, food on the table and had many luxuries that other people arent fortunate enough to have. Yes she wasn't always rich and her family struggled with finances a lot when she was a kid and even into her teenage years but she still had a lot of things that other kids didn't. She was never physically abused by her family and her parents always claimed that they loved her and bought her gifts and such to prove it although a lot of times she felt their words meant nothing and in fact the gifts were just disguises. Each time she was 'thanked' or 'spoiled' later that day she'd be yelled at or talked down to. On several occasions she was even denied food or given physical punishment. From this she had become brainwashed in a way, she knew nothing else but to abide by her parents rules and although she enjoyed the freedom at college, she just couldn't break free from her parents grasp even if she wanted do; she had this attachment from all the pain and didn't want to leave. She didn't want to face life without the people that she believed that she could rely on no matter what.

Not only did she feel petty but she thought that by exposing all that she did over the past couple conversations that Kendall would just forget about her and not want to have to deal with her problems. He said that he liked her but that was before he knew all of her pain that she was going through. Not only that but did he only like her out of pity with what had happened with Walter. She couldn't tell if things just weren't adding up because of her mistrust or if things really weren't as they seemed. She liked Kendall, more than a friend actually and although she wasn't sure that she was even capable of love with all the doubt and negativity that she had been feeling, she did have fairly strong feelings for Kendall. It was more than adoration of his role as a celebrity, she fell in love with his personality. He was level headed, down to earth, and they just had a lot in common. He was genuine and caring, he was everything Katie could ever imaging in a boyfriend but she just wasn't ready to face her feelings, nor did she know how. The thing is, did she ruin any chance she had with him by laying almost everything out on the table? How did she know that he wasn't going to just get up and leave her; just like everyone else who said they would be there.

Katie pulled up to the gated entrance to the academy and the security guard let her in. She drove through the lengthy driveway and parking lot before pulling up to the garage and entering her number to unlock and open the door and her stall. She carefully backed in her truck and the two of them got out, Kendall waiting out in the main drag for a minute before coming back to the car to see what was taking Katie so long. She seemed to be a bit tired but he figured it was all the work she was doing plus the subject of discussion today wasn't exactly thrilling nor positive.

"Are you alright?" he asked as she shut the door.

"Yeah…" she said slowly and softly. "Just a bit tired and a little down at our conversation today. I want to apologize about that, you didn't need to hear all of that." she continued as she walked out of her stall. She pressed the blinking button on the keypad and the door shut before the entire keypad blinked red a few times and then shut off signaling that it was locked. They continued down the ramp and out side and saw snow starting to fall slowly.

"Don't worry about it. I know you have this thing about trusting people and I kind of understand it from your point of view but I want you to be able to trust me. I really meant it when I said I liked you; I want to know more about you and to help you through this if I can. You don't deserve all this pain and torment, you deserve to be happy, just like the rest of us." he smiled as he opened the door to the entrance. Sandy had gone home so the internal door was locked. Katie pulled out her key and unlocked it as she listened to Kendall. Rango was still running loose so she left the door unlocked so he could guard against intruders but still have a means to escape if in fact Kendall was planning something she wasn't going to like.

"Still, it's just…these are petty problems and they're mine. It's nothing to complain about nor is it anyone's business; everyone has their own problems to deal with and I'm no different." she said, heading to her office. She unlocked the door slowly, sighing as she spoke.

"Not everyone has the same problems to go through and no one should have to go through it alone." he said sternly yet gentle as he looked into her eyes.

His green eyes were shining bright with feeling and life. Katie turned away and was ready to cry, feeling upset at the fact that she still felt nothing, nor could she trust anything. She felt just as useless as everyone had always told her; she hated feeling like such a mess and bother to others and this was no different. Here Kendall was, lying out his feelings in full color, yet she couldn't help but stomp all over his heart. She hated doing it but she had no control over the matter and just couldn't stand it. He went to comfort her but a knock at the door caught them both off guard. Katie turned to see Liam at the door with a pile of paper work.

"Liam!" she grinned. "What are you still doing here?"

"I had some extra stuff to do today before closing. I have no where to be anyway, my parents went to Florida for the holidays and I was going to meet them there but I thought I'd just stay home, Christmas is special and all but I could use a vacation myself." he replied

"Going anywhere?" she asked

"Just upstate, maybe New York. I've got a few friends around there to couch surf. I can take in all the festivities there and then maybe hit a casino or something. Christmas hasn't been much fun since I was a kid so I'm not missing anything." he said.

"Well as long as you arent going to be alone. I feel bad enough that I had some of my staff work today, I'm not going to be happy if someone's left out during the holidays." she stated

"Nope, all taken care of. Here's my sign-off and the yearly total, I did it up early since I wont be back until after the new year." he smiled

"Ok, great. Estimates are fine." she said as she quickly looked over the list. "You groomed the dogs and cleaned the cages so they should be good for the week on just pickup. I can handle bathing if it's necessary. This looks great, thanks." she said.

"No problem. I'm still going to be here for another hour or so, I have some other stuff to do before I go." he explained

"Sure, I'll be here for a little bit myself. Just let me know when you're leaving and I'll do the same so we know who has to lock the door." she instructed

"Alright. I'll see you in an hour." he said as he turned to leave.

He returned to the kennel to finish cleaning the last few cages and to let the dogs in and put them away with fresh water and their dinner. He noticed that he left his time card on the desk and ran back to give it to her. He flew around the corner and up to her door and he stopped as soon as he walked in. He stood at the entrance, stunned as he saw Kendall kissing Katie, right on the lips. He looked as though he slightly forced himself upon her since he was holding her shoulders and she was slightly pressed against the bookcase but her arms were free and she wasn't fighting him off. Liam's heart sank at the sight and he backed away carefully to avoid getting caught staring. He walked backwards for a little bit, staring at the floor before turning around and running back to the kennel as he felt tears pushing at his eyelids.