Cats and Dogs – Broken

"Isinia!"

The female Sirian stops almost out of the exit hangar of command. She didn't want to go out the main entrance and attract attention to herself, and her suitcase. When she turns, she sees a tearful and angry Katherine Manx. "Doctor Manx... "

"Mrs. Cruger," Kat addresses, trying to calm herself. "Please, please don't... "

"There's nothing more to be said, Katherine, it's done." Isinia refers to the fact that she is leaving for one of Sirius' extension stars this evening, not to return.

"Please, please don't...leave him." Kat sniffles and tries to keep herself from crying. She's angry that the Sirian would consider leaving her husband after so much; she's angry that there's probably nothing she herself can do about it. Most of all, she's heartbroken for her dearest friend. "He has been so...broken, since he thought... Just, please, don't do this to him."

Isinia looks at the Felina, who also lost everything to the Troobians. She sees a young woman, crying in desperation for her friend. "Katherine, can you honestly tell me that you have never had romantic feelings for my husband?"

Kat looks at her solidly. "Anubis Cruger is my best friend, the friend I love most in the world, and a true hero."

"That does not answer the question, Katherine," Isinia knows the Felina will neither admit nor deny it. "Either way, it's like I said: what's done is done."

"No!—I don't accept it! How could you do this to him?! How could you know how his heart has been so broken, only healing through decades, and now break it again?! How could you break his heart?!" Kat's angry shouts are choked with the tightness of crying.

"I am not breaking it, Katherine, nor is he, mine. Our hearts are fine, just not each other's anymore."

Kat stops at Isinia's strange words. "I don't understand."

Isinia sets her bag down and sighs, giving up her cold front. "Neither do I, Katherine. Maybe...maybe we were fooling ourselves, thinking that the time spent apart would disappear if only we could get each other back. In a way, I think we expected to pick up where we left off, but it's not that simple. We're different people from who we were then. I've been through things I can't ever say to his face. Years of isolation has chilled the man I once knew; he's distant, and has so much trouble opening up."

"He can—he will! Just...give him time. Ease him into it," Kat pleads.

Isinia smiles gently and chuckles, "Katherine, you know this Anubis much better than I. That being said, you should know that there's no changing him. He'll never admit this isn't working, but we both know our marriage cannot carry on like this—like we're strangers. He would do anything to convince me he loves me, and have me stay."

"He does love you!"

"Not like he loves you."

Kat freezes like a statue at Isinia. "N–no, no...he doesn't, we're friends. He's my best friend and you are his wife!"

"I was; now, we are like old friends. I will always hold him dear to my heart, but we are no longer lovers, or mates. We don't look at each other the same way, or talk like we used to." Isinia shakes her head tiredly.

"But you love each other, and that—"

"Sometimes that is just not enough," Isinia persists, tiring of arguing with the young woman.

"That's just an excuse to give up! You can't quit on each other! Doggie has been through hell, torturing himself over how he lost you, thinking of impossible scenarios in which he could have saved you! He has been...so...broken..." Kat finally breaks down, crying. "He's so broken..."

"Which is why you have to fix him, and you're already well on your way." Isinia smiles. "I am too broken...I can't be the one to do it."

Kat looks up at the blue scaled woman. "He loves you. He loves YOU! Why can't you stand by his side through this?!"

Isinia lets the brunette rage at her. 'You have stood by him through much worse than this, and you will stand by him until and beyond the grave, Katherine. That is your place, now.'

"He needs you! You're supposed to be together until the day you die!" Kat stomps her foot childishly so as not to explode from pent up frustration. "Is it me?!—I'll go! I'll leave and never look back if you don't leave him! Just don't leave him!"

Katherine's shouts hit Isinia hard, but it's not enough. Isinia goes to Kat and puts a paw on her shoulder. "But you could never do that. You could do it for his sake, but you wouldn't do that to him. He needs you far more than he needs me, and losing you would kill him. We both know you could never do that to him."

Kat sniffles pitifully and looks at Isinia's eyes, her own stinging and red. "Please...please don't leave him."

"I have to, Katherine, for both of our sakes." When Isinia sees Kat's lost look she continues. "It has been so long we don't know how to be married anymore. We speak with difficulty. He can't be who he used to be, he's too unused to me now. We're uncomfortable and cold. I keep thinking he'll be the same Anubis as he was before Grumm but you know he will never be the same as before that."

Kat looks at the ground, pain ripping her heart apart bit by bit. "You'll break him."

"I won't," Isinia laughs ironically, "but even if I did, you can fix him."

"It should be you," says Kat.

"But he wants it to be you," Isinia rebukes. "He is happy with you. The only time I see him happy – truly happy – is when he is with you, and the children. This is what he needs, not a reminder of that day."

"Isinia, I can't let you walk out on him." Kat's voice is strong, adamant and resolved. "I won't let you walk out on him!"

"You will if you want what's best for him. We both knew this was coming, he hasn't tried to deny it. This is for the best."

So, Isinia continues out of the hangar and doesn't look back. She doesn't cry, but she can hear the anguished wails of Katherine Manx long after the command center is out of sight.

Kat remains in the hangar, trying not to fall to the ground as she imagines trying to tell Doggie the news. Boom, watching on, calls the only person he knows can comfort her. "Commander Cruger, you should come down here."

Kat next realizes she's in Doggie's arms, bawling. Her guilt overwhelms her. "I'm sorry!...I–I tr–tried! I tried so hard! I'm sorry!"

"Sh, now; it's okay. I know you did, Katherine. It'll be all right. We'll get through this. It's not your fault...it's not your fault." Doggie soothes Kat's sobbing, trying to ease her pain by stroking her hair. "I promise, it's not your fault, my love."