"Where you going in such a hurry?" Hank questioned, catching Kat at the elbows.
"Just leave me alone." She snarled trying to tug her arms from his grasp. He let go of her, but still stood directly in her path.
"Hey, are you crying?" Hank lifted her chin up with two of his fingers.
"What do you care?" Kat tore herself from away from him, now determined not to cry in front of him. "Just leave me alone, please."
"Tell me why you're crying first." Hank insisted. "Was it Slicker? You can't take too much of what he says seriously these days. He's a drunk."
"Like you're much better." The woman scoffed at him. "Get out of my way Hank."
"Hank, I believe Kathryn asked you to move out of her way." Dr. Mike said calmly. She approach the two in the middle of the street.
"Nobody asked you Michaela." Hank rolled his eyes. It seemed he went through the same song and dance with that meddlesome woman every day. Sticking her nose where it didn't belong. He wished she'd quit and move back to Boston already.
"What seems to be the trouble?" A man's voice asked from behind Hank and Dr. Mike.
"Ain't no trouble Sully." Hank assured the mountain man as he turned to face him. "I just saw your sister here coming out of Jake's. She was all worked up, just wanted to check on her is all."
"Well you've checked on her." Sully replied shortly. "Kathryn, walk with me?" Glad to be rid of Hank, Kat followed after her brother willingly."I thought I told you to leave." Her brother said as they walked out of town together.
"You did. Last night, and eleven years ago when I left town for the first time." Kat remembered the night she has left town as vividly as if it had happened yesterday, and often times it haunted her in her nightmares.
An eighteen year old Kat sat across the table from the then nineteen year old Abigail. Abby and Kat had quickly become friends much to Sully's dismay. That night, while they waited for him to return home for dinner, they saytat the table chatting about the people in town.
"I saw your Pa today." Kat supplied. "He gave Mathew Cooper a nickel's worth of candy for free. On account of Mathew helping him unload some things from the stage."
"I wish he'd just let Byron and I help him with things like that." Abigail sighed. "He ain't getting any younger, and its absolutely ridiculous that he won't talk to use."
"He'll come around." Kat assured her friend. "Think of how long it took for me! When I first came to town I wanted nothing to do with my brother, but we get on just fine now. Sure it took two years but..."
"That's different." Abby pointed out. "You'd thought he'd abandoned you, which in a way he kind of did."
"Don't matter. The point is we're family, as we ain't never leaving each other again." Kat assured her sister-in-law.
"Cept when you go back to the Saloon at night." Abigail frowned.
"Oh now we talked about this."Kat hissed. "I like my job."
"That's what you keep sayn'. And it might have been true when you came to town, but now I'm not so sure. You have Jake and you have us. You're not alone anymore."
"I've said this a hundred times, Jake and I, we're just friends." Kat insisted. "And while I like coming up to visit you and Byron, you two really ought to be starting a family of your own. You don't need me in here all the time. I've got to take care of myself know."
"You don't have to worry about that no more." Sully assured her. Both women jumped. They'd been so invested in their conversation, neither of them had heard or seen him come home.
"What are you talking about?" His sister asked, staring back at him from over the back of her chair.
"I've settled your debt with Hank." Sully explained with a smile. "Your contracts paid off."
"There was three years left on that contract." Kat said, jumping to her feet. "It would have cost everything you own."
"More than that." Sully answered. "But I borrowed about half of it from a friend. You're all paid up. I watched Hank tear up the contract, and I got all your things. He said there wasn't no need for you to ever come back."
"Why would you go and do a thing like that?" Kat snapped.
"For you, why the hell else would I do it?" Sully growled.
"I loved my job!" His sister yelled.
"It's not a job Kat!" Her brother barked back at her. "It's not even work! You can't stay a whore forever."
"And that's just how you see me isn't it?" Kat replied coldly. "I'm not your sister, I'm a whore. just another lost woman for you to rescue. Because that's what you do isn't it? You saved Abby from her arranged marriage. You think you can just swoop in and rescue people. Sometimes, people don't need any rescuing!"
"Kathryn, I was just tryin' to..."
"Just tryin' to ruin my life more than you already have?" Kat spat.
"Ruin your life? All you've done since you've come into this town is make my life impossible! Everyone always whispering behind my back..."
"Well if I've been such an inconvenience maybe I ought to leave." Kat said with her hands on her hips.
"Well Maybe you should!" Sully shouted.
"Byron!" Abigail jumped her feet, interjecting for the first time. "Be reasonable!"
"It's alright Abby." Kat told her friend. "Ain't no reason for me to stay where I'm not wanted." She picked up her suitcase which Sully had left by the door, and left the Homestead.
"You know, the Cheyenne believe that everyone is family to each other. Doesn't matter what you've done, or where you've come from. They love each other and protect each other, even if one of 'em doesn't realized they need protecting." Sully told Kathryn as they walked through the woods.
"I was eighteen Byron." Kat sighed. "I didn't know what I was doing or sayin'. I was just so mad that night. And by the time I'd realized what I'd done...what you'd done for me? It was too late. I knew I'd never be able to thank you enough. "
"Is that why you never came back?" Sully asked.
"No, I never came back because I thought you and Abby would've had a family of your own. You wouldn't want me around." She admitted. "I had no way of knowing what happened to her."
"Of course you didn't." Sully sighed and he stopped walking. "She never forgave me for letting you go that night."
"I wouldn't have listened to you, even if you did." Kathryn promised.
"That's what I told her." Sully replied. He stroked absentmindedly at Wolf's fur. "But she was right. I should have gone after you. I guess I never really forgave myself neither."
"Maybe that's our problem." She crouched down and started petting Wolf too. "Forgiving's never been part of the Sully way."
"Maybe we can change that." her brother offered. He held out his hands.
"I'd like that." Kat agreed. She placed one of her hands in each of his and he helped her to her feet. Without warning, Kathryn flung her arms around Sully's neck. He was surprised, but glad to finally have his sister back. So he wrapped his arms around her too.