What is Needed But Unexpected

truth

Jane felt her heart melt when she walked into Katherine's room, finding the youngest of the queens sobbing on the bed, clothing half stuffed into a duffle bag as if she had broken down in the middle of packing.

Jane opened her mouth but before she could say anything, Katherine said in a trembling, nearly whispered voice "I know I screwed up bad this time... I'll be ready to go….just give me a few minutes more. Please?" 

Jane wasn't sure what Katherine meant at first, then realization hit her and her heart broke for the distraught girl.

"You're not going anywhere. Did you honestly think we were going to kick you out?" 

"That's what everyone else did…Get rid of me." 

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Katherine heard Jane approaching the bed and braced herself for whatever was going to come. She had never seen Jane angry. Would she yell and curse like Anne? Would she shout and make her feel even worse like Aragon? Would she actually hit her, like she had expected someone to do before now?

Katherine's heart jumped into her throat when she felt a hand on her arm, however to her surprise the woman just sat beside her on the bed.

"Love, we're never going to do such a thing. Even if you're behavior lately has been ...Subpar ...To say the least. You're young, you're going to mess up but that's how we as humans learn. By no means does our disappointment mean we're going to care any less or kick you out."

 Katherine wanted to believe that, she wanted to belong with these women. But that was honestly too good to be true, wasn't it? It was too much to hope for. People like her didn't deserve to be happy.

She didn't deserve to be happy.

"Even if everything besides today was on purpose?" 

She whimpered finally, only to find herself being forced to make eye contact with the blonde.

"So Catherine was right, you have been testing us?" Jane responded, her expression never losing its softness, even as Katherine nodded.

"Nothing will ever make us leave you, but we need to have a talk about what's going on with you lately, everyone is getting worried." 

"Everyone always wanted something from me and then when things didn't go the way they were supposed to…. I was the one who ended up getting the blame. I just figured that it would be less…..If I knew the reason this time."

Katherine's voice wavered as she said this, waiting on Jane to change her mind about her, waiting on her to become furious or something.

Anything but the damned look of disappointment that she saw in the woman's eyes.

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Aragon was expecting a lot of things.

Anne Leaving with Maggie and heading to a pub, Katherine shouting at Jane or via versa or Parr getting sick of overhearing everyone else's conversations and coming downstairs.

She wasn't expecting Anna to open the door and a large, black, Greyhound to bound over to her, yapping and sniffing at her as it's tail nearly knocked her cup of tea off of the coffee table.

"Shit! Sorry Catherine! Falk! Down!" 

Just like that the beast stopped and returned to Anna's side, causing Catherine to arch a brow at her.

"Where did you manage to find that hellhound at?" She questioned, although she was more curious about why Anna looked so happy.

"Aragon, look at his collar….he….He's one of mine. He...He came back like us."