Complicated ✔

Prologue

"Don't you dare leave me alone with her," Kathryn cried as she sat alone in her father's hospital room after getting a call from his best friend, and partner, saying he'd been shot while on the job, "I don't think I could stay in the same house as her if you left me alone. Daddy, please wake up." "Miss Grimes," a nurse said, sticking her head into the room after knocking on the door, "your mother, brother and your father's partner are here." "She's my step-mother," Kathryn said, lifting her head up from the bed where she had placed it. The nurse nodded before stepping back and allowing her step-mother, younger half-brother, and their dad's best friend walk into the room. "How is he," Lori asked as she and her son, Carl, came to a stop on the other side of the bed. "He's been unconscious since they got him out of surgery," Kathryn said, looking down at her father and grabbing ahold of his hand as she spoke, "I got here shortly after they took him back."

"Did you skip the rest of school," Shane, her father's best friend, asked her. "I was getting ready to leave school when you called me, Shane," she said not looking up from her father, "so there was nothing to skip." Shane nodded to Kathryn as Carl walked around the bed over to her. "Kathryn," his soft voice said, causing her to lift her head up to meet his worried filled blue eyes. "C'mere buddy," she said, letting go of their father's hand and opening her arms up for him. He lunged forward, wrapping his arms around his older sister's body and crying into her embrace as she looked down at their father over his head and tried rubbing soothing circles into his back the best she could. Kathryn could hear whispering coming from the two older adults in the room and lifted her eyes to see Shane and Lori were whispering back and forth between each other while glancing to her dad every couple of minutes.

"Kathryn, are you riding back with me and your brother," Lori asked after a few minutes when she finished whispering with Shane and walked over, taking Carl out of her arms. "No, I'm gonna stay here," she said, shaking her head, "in case he wakes up." "You've got school tomorrow," Lori said, looking down disapprovingly at Kathryn. "I've already informed my school principle about what's going on," she said, sending a glare up to her step-mother, "they know I'll be staying by my father's side. Even told me if I needed to I could finish up any of my courses over the summer so that I don't fall behind my class. I'm staying here." Lori looked to Shane and shook her head before turning with Carl in tow and leaving out of Rick's hospital room. "You can go too, Shane," Kathryn said when she didn't hear him walk out of the room with Lori and Carl, "I'm not leaving his bedside. I want to be here when he wakes up."

"You'll need to go home at some point, Kathryn," Shane said, walking to sit in the chair across from her on the other side of Rick's bed, "you won't be able to stay here all the time." "I don't care," she said, refusing to look up at him, "he's my dad. He'd do the same thing if it was me on this bed and not him." "I know that, Kathryn," Shane said, "but he wouldn't want you to do this. He'd want you to finish your senior year out so that you can graduate on time with your class. You can always come straight here after school and spend time with him until he wakes up and gets out." Kathryn continued to glare a hole into the side of the bed where she'd been staring since Shane sat down and started trying to talk her into going home. "Look, Lori and Carl need you right now," he said when he didn't get an answer from her, "go home for them."

"Lori can handle herself just fine without me," she said, refusing to look up at him. "Then go home for Carl," he said, "I know you love your younger brother to death." "He's my half-brother, Shane," she said, "get it right." "He's still your blood," Shane said and she finally lifted her head up to look at him, "go home. Even if it's just to be there with Carl." Kathryn glared at Shane before standing up and grabbing her bag from school. "Here, I know you either walked here from school or took a cab," Shane said, standing up with her, "I'll give you a ride home." "I'd rather take a cab," she said, watching him cautiously, "but thanks anyway."

"I really don't mind giving you a ride, Kathryn," Shane said, trying to talk her into letting him take her home. "I mean it, I don't mind Shane," she said glaring at him. She'd never been that comfortable around this man and she didn't want to get in the same car as him. She didn't even like being in this room alone with him. "Just let me know if you hear any changes when I'm at school," she said before turning and walking by him, out the room door and down the corridor towards the elevators. She didn't care that he was her dad's friend, didn't mean she had to trust him like the rest of her family seemed to, particularly her step-mother. As she waited for the elevator to open, she turned to look back to her dad's room, seeing Shane standing there in the doorway, watching her. Turning back to face the elevator, the doors finally opened and she quickly walked inside, getting away from him as fast as she could.

Edited: 9/27/2017