A/N: I had to change up the timeline a bit so it could better fit with Kat's involvement in the story, so hopefully it still makes sense???

For three days, Katherine felt unbelievably, inexplicably, wrong.

Her mom — the word felt wrong even before it had ever left her mouth, though she had no clue as to why — had made her breakfast when she'd woken up the first morning, had gotten her a cup of coffee, had reminded her to take her meds before she left for school. She'd packed her a lunch and kissed her on the head when she'd felt for school, which also felt wrong.

She'd been getting dressed that morning when she found a strange, unheard of word scrawled across the inside of her left forearm; Stiles.

Even though she had no clue what it mean, after taking one look at it Katherine couldn't stop crying and ended up being so late, her Dad had stepped in and asked her what was wrong, because she didn't want her mom near her, though she couldn't figure out why. She'd sobbed out the word Stiles and had felt him tense briefly before looking at her, confused, and she'd cried harder.

Then asked if she had a brother.

After calming down, as she closed herself in the bathroom to put on makeup to cover the redness of her eyes, she heard her mother utter the words Eichen House, maybe...might help her...if she thinks she has a brother for whatever reason...and when she'd come out the conversation had stopped quickly. Her Dad asked her if she was getting a ride with Liam that morning — which also felt wrong because something in her head was screaming jeep, though she didn't know why either because they'd never had a jeep before — and she had.

The moment he'd seen her, Liam had known something was wrong in a way only best friends ever did.

He'd left Hayden's side immediately and pulled her into a tight hug, softly asking her if it was an off day because she'd taken her meds late or something, an she'd jut buried her face in his shoulder because truthfully, she didn't know. She didn't know what the hell was wrong with her, or why she felt like part of her was gone and she couldn't get it back; she didn't even know what that part was.

But he'd hugged her, and hugged her, and continued to hug her until the bell rang for classes, and then he'd walked her to hers first without caring that he'd end up being late for his own, and when she'd asked him why, he'd simply responded with you'd do it for me.

Hayden had given him a funny look for it, but he hadn't spared her a look.

For the first time since they'd started going out, Katherine had his full, undivided attention.

She didn't mind having Hayden around anymore, she could even say they were friends, but she had missed it just being her, Liam and Mason, who was also extremely worried about her though he was much better at hiding it, and let her handle it by spending her time with Liam while supplying her with an endless number of hugs in hopes of helping her feel less alone. But ultimately, he'd send Liam her way whenever he noticed her spiraling particularly downwards because he knew that was what she needed, and didn't care about her any less for it.

The next night she'd been watching Bones down in the living room and called one of the characters a fucking dumbass, and had listened to her mother tell her jokingly to watch her language. She wound up sobbing so hard on the couch for reasons she couldn't fathom that they called Scott and Liam over to the house. When the two of them had tried coaxing out what had happened, all she'd been able to say was; I — I've heard that before...someone used to tell me that all the time...I don't know who it was...I can't — I can't remember.

But even with the two of them caring for her the way family would, and Scott checking up on her the way an older brother would — which caused an itchy feeling in the back of her mind, like she'd forgotten something really important but hadn't made a note of it — she still couldn't bring herself above the waves of sadness, grief and depression that were threatening to swallow her whole.

That was why she'd been checked into Eichen House for a week.

After days of hardly sleeping and eating it was easy to see that she was barely holding herself together as it was, but she didn't care about getting help or talking about what was wrong with her. She didn't even know what was wrong with her.

She'd been on a Skype call with Liam and Mason as she'd packed a duffle-bag with clothes, the stuffed animal Brett had given her, and books to read while she was there. Admittedly, she'd let them do most of the talking because she just didn't feel like saying anything.

It had been her mother's idea to send her there, that much she knew; her father seemed to have an intense aversion to it though none of them knew entirely why. But within two days of hearing them argue about it constantly without knowing she was listening, she'd been checked in to her room.

The first thing they'd done was practically pump her full of sedatives so she'd get the rest her body needs, and hooked her up to an IV for nutrition and hydration while she was out. Thirty six hours she'd woken up and hadn't really felt any different; just less drained.

But it still felt like something within her was missing, like whatever that missing thing was had thrown her routine off so entirely she physically couldn't exist without it. It was as if all the emotions she felt towards that missing thing were just sitting in her chest, weighing her down like an anchor tethering a boat to the ground.

Every day after school Liam, Mason and Hayden had come by to see her, and Lydia and Scott hardly ever left. Yet even with all her visitors, and the games of Clue and Monopoly and Uno that were played, she knew that deep down the only thing she wanted out of her favourite people in the world, was to be left alone. To just take the chance to grieve for the thing missing inside her, whatever it was, and just spend her time locked in her room so she could try to find some kind of peace within herself.

But she did all the work she was expected to do and admittedly it did help, but it was nowhere near enough to bring her back to her usual self, which is exactly why she was surprised when Liam wanted to come with her parents to bring her home.

As she sat patiently on the edge of her bed, staring blankly at the wall in front of her, she couldn't help but sigh. She was in the middle of packing her things, which she knew should've made her happy because it meant she could sleep in a bed that was actually comfortable and didn't have shackles hanging on the ends, but she wasn't. She didn't really feel anything.

Just tired.

She glanced up at the sound of incoming footsteps, and was met with the impatient eyes of one of the orderlies in her hall, Cheryl. "You almost done, Stilinski?" She barked, straight black hair swaying side to side as she stopped in the doorway. "Your family's here, I'm supposed to take you down to them."

Sighing, she stood up and grabbed her last few things and tossed them into her bag.

She didn't have a roommate for her stay, since apparently most of the girls her age were in a much better place than she was — according to Cheryl, anyway — so it had just been her the entire week outside of group therapy. At least it was quiet.

She wandered over to the door behind Cheryl and had just grabbed the handle, only to pause because she could've sworn she'd heard a swishing sound. Shaking it off after not hearing it again, she walked out of the room and down the hall to the elevator where the orderly was waiting with an impatient tap of her foot. The doors were just beginning to close when the head of a grotesque, blood caked black horse peered around the corner of the hall to the left and focused it's milky white eyes on her.

Katherine stumbled back, only to bump into Cheryl and found she couldn't remember why her heart felt as if it were about to hammer right out of her chest, or why her entire body was trembling with an overwhelming horror she couldn't quite shake off.

The moment she was in the lobby, the first person she went to was Liam. Not that she really had a choice, though. He'd launched himself at her the moment they were out of the elevator. His arms were tightly hooked around her middle and fingers tangled in the ends of her hair, hers were locked around his shoulders and she clung to him as tightly as she could and in that moment, standing in the cold halls of Eichen with healing IV spots on her hand, she understood what Scott had been talking bout in their freshman year when he'd said Allison was his anchor.

She knew that her life without Liam would be horribly different, and she'd be dead several times over if it weren't for him and she owed him for that. But he never asked her for anything in return, and she never knew what to give him to say thank you, so she settled for pouring all of her thanks into the hugs she was good and handing out.

"I missed you," he mumbled into her shoulder, hands briefly tightening around her.

Katherine didn't let go of him, just hid her face further in his shoulder because looking up meant looking at her parents, and she didn't want to do that. Not matter what she'd learned in group therapy, seeing them together still felt unbelievably wrong.

But when they pulled away she gave both of her parents short hugs, because she didn't want to hurt their feelings, but held onto Liam's hand tightly as her Dad carried her bag out for her to the patrol car they'd taken there, and Katherine froze for a moment because that little voice in the back of her head came back and was once again chanting jeep, jeep, jeep, jeep, jeep.

Liam seemed to sense her internal struggle, probably due to the anxious chemo-signals she was undoubtedly giving off, and held her hand tightly without anyone saying a word as they all climbed in.

As she shut the door she accidentally slammed her thumb in it, and pulled it up close to her chest. "Ow, fuck," she hissed to herself, and then paused because she was waiting for something.

She was almost expecting a swat to the back of the head, or a soft punch to her arm, or even a scolding for swearing, but it never came. Her heart dropped to hers stomach, and she closed her eyes.

She declined the offer of having dinner out somewhere, since she just wanted to lay in bed, watch some Tinker Bell and maybe eat some Mac and Cheese for dinner so she could have time to think before starting school on the upcoming Monday that was only one full day away now. But she was surprised to hear her Dad ask Liam if he wanted to spend the night, and was even more surprised to hear him say yes without a moments hesitation.

After a conversation that she hadn't been a part of it was decided that they'd do take-out for dinner so her Dad could grab something for his breakfast in the morning, and wound up with individual boxes of Pad Thai in a bag that her parents agreed to let them eat in her room so that she could talk to Liam and take her pills in peace.

They made themselves comfortable on her bed in their usual places — her flopped out on her bed, him laying down on the bean bag chair he'd dragged up beside her — as the TV turned on down stairs, and Liam informed her that they were watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S. reruns and just generally chatting about their day. She just nodded.

"We don't have to talk if you don't want to, okay?" He murmured softly, setting his dinner box down on the floor beside his bean bag. "Just — can you tell me you're okay? Please?"

Katherine bit down on her bottom lip harshly as it began to tremble, and she felt her eyes flood with tears that were unbelievably hard to hold back. Her throat ached slightly as she cleared it, and she played with her sleeves and unintentionally brought her shoulders up to her ears as if to protect herself from something. "I..." he voice cracked and she had to close her eyes, which meant tears were spilling down her cheeks. "I don't think I am okay, Liam, and — I don't know why I'm not because I have to be fine because there's everything going on with the hunt—"

"—you don't have to be anything, Katherine," he cut her off.

After taking one look in his eyes — those god damn pretty blue eyes that made her feel like she was looking at every single beautiful thing she'd ever see in her life all at once — and saw how earnest he was, how genuine, she broke down. Her body collapsed into sobs and she leaned over her criss-crossed-apple-sauce legs and pressed her face into her mattress while the heel of her right hand was digging into her chest as hard as she could make it.

And she cried.

She felt the bed sink down beside her and then Liam was moving her Thai-food onto the bedside table and pulling her into his arms, holding her so she could hide her face in the crook of his neck and his hands were gently working through the knots in her hair. It reminded her of a night just the previous year when he'd held her after she'd woken from a nightmare — the night she'd killed a hunter that was participating in the Deadpool — and almost couldn't help but wish that she could go back to those days.

The days before everything had gotten all weird with the her-Liam-Hayden situation, when she was blissfully unaware of her own feelings. Just from her memories of it, she knew that everything made sense back then, but she didn't know why.

All she knew was that she was missing something with the title Stiles that, for all she knew, she'd made up, and nothing could make that better.

Not even Liam and Thai food.