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That's the point of everything, right? Love?

The words are rolling around Katherine's brain like a rock tumbler. The sun is on her back and Russell's fingers are sifting through her hair, and she's comfortable and lazed. This should feel a lot like love. Basking in warmth, a veiled haze of white cotton sheets, gentle kisses and soft touches.

Maybe her last couple of daysΒ should be good ones.

Katherine is in the shower and Russell is making breakfast. Waffles, huckleberry jam, custard, sausage links. He got up early this morning to start on the custard, feeling extra motivated by thoughts of his mother.

She was in his dreams again last night. Heather and Russell were at her house and they told her Heather was pregnant. It never happened. She'd been dead a long time.

A pair of arms wind around his middle, and up on her toes, Katherine rests her chin on Russell's shoulder. Her eyes sweep over the pan of sausage links and the waffle iron.

"You're spoiling me today," she says with a hint of suspicion in her voice.

"Me, spoil you?" He hums. "Never." She kisses his shoulder and lets him go.

"You should go shower. I'll cover this." With one hip to his, Russell has been bumped from the stove.

She's in a...decent mood.

She had coffee with breakfast. There was a splash of Bailey's, but Russell wouldn't fault her for it.

"You really should think about opening your own restaurant," she says, looking down at her empty plate. A custard-and-jam-smeared waffle stack, four sausage links...she's stuffed.

"You think?" Russell asks. Katherine nods, sliding down in her seat with closed eyes.

"That was really good, Russ. Thank you."

She's said thank you only a handful of times.

She did say she was sorry last night.

"You wanna go on a little walk before we hit the road?" Russell asks.

"Yeah, I guess we can do that."

Agreeable.

It's horrible...but the niceties have tied knots in Russell's stomach.

He chews on his lip as they make their way through the woods. They're close, elbows within kissing distance, but they never touch. He's thinking about his mom, about Heather...

"I want to talk about Heather," Russell says. Katherine's blue eyes snap up from the dirt underneath her boots to focus on him. He can't read her face, even still. Almost like it's blank. Void of anything. She couldn't have always been like this.Β 

Katherine's tongue is like sandpaper against the roof of her mouth. They never talked about this. About their big loves. Understand there was loss, and move on. Russell knew the ins and outs of hersβ€”it was plastered all over the news. Katherine knew nothing about what happened to Russell. To Heather.

Russell's eyes latch onto hers. Earth, sea. "She died." He can't stop the onslaught of images of that night. "Jack and I were in the minors at the time, it was the offseason, so we were home...I was out at the cage at his. I stayed way later than I was supposed to. When I got home, it was way past dark, so my..." Russell almost gags, the way his tongue drops away from the roof of his mouth. He takes a deep, steadying breath, tear-filled eyes focused on a boulder nearby. "Heather would've already put Anna to bed." Katherine's knees feel weak. He lost his world, too.Β 

An unreasonable part of her is angry he's never told her this before. Her grief, her trauma, is free. Why would he keep that from her?

But the other part of her, the overwhelming part of her, feels...something opposite entirely. Understanding. Empathy, sympathy, whatever the fuck. He knows. She knows.Β 

Nothing can bring two people together like a common denominator. Nothing quite like Death by Supernatural, anyway, with small nuances. The end of this story is so obvious, and Katherine, selfishly, doesn't know if she can bear it.

"The front door was open when I pulled up," Russell says. His voice is getting unsteady. "The lights were on. I don't remember exactly what I thought about it, but I ran, and...and I found Heather on the ground, but it wasn't Heather, it was..." He chokes. "And then I heard Anna scream." Russell's moan turns into a sob. "I couldn't comprehend what I was seeing...this tall, thin thing...and I grabbed its arm, and it cut my hand." They both look at his right hand. There's a purple scar jutting up by his thumb, stretching down into his wrist, no more than three inches long. "And when I looked up, this thing had two faces. One was...inhumanly perfect. And the other was so sharp, it..." Russell shakes his head, groaning through his grief. He wipes his eyes. "I couldn't move. For two seconds, I couldn't move. They were the longest two seconds of my life, because that's when Anna stopped crying."

Katherine can't breathe, it's like her chest is in spasm. There's no way to compare grief, or trauma. It simply is. Katherine hasn't moved on from hers in the same way Russell hasn't.

"She was two," Russell whispers. "And for the past five years, all I've heard at night when I go to bed is the sound of..." He can't finish the sentence. Face twisted in rage, in pain, he keeps his gaze on the ground. Katherine can't look away from him. "But that changed the first night you came home. I've only..." He rubs his face and sniffs. "I don't know why. I've only thought about that night three times since you came back."

Since you came back.

Like it was fate. Magnets. Destiny.

Katherine's mouth is full of saliva, furthering the nausea she feels. She swallows hard, forces herself to breathe.

"I didn't tell you so you'd feel bad and not know what to say to me," Russell says. "I told you because I know."

"You started hunting," Katherine whispers. Russell nods. "Did you get it?"

"I got the thing the second I could move," he replies. "I called Jackson. He drove us to the Reservation, just two miles from where I lived. The Natives told me about the creature. They took the body, burned it. And they helped with the investigation."

Helped.Β They took the bodies of his family, reported their deaths as an on-reservation crime to keep the local PD out of it. Helped.

"I came back here because of that same creature," Katherine finally says. Her voice is low, gravelly. She doesn't quite recognize it as her own. "The Rez elders called in a special favor. I think they were trying to kill me." She scoffs a little, shaking her head, and holds up her right hand. "It grabbed my right hand. I felt myself start to freeze."

"It's weird, right?" Russell asks. "Involuntary immobilization. Worse than fear paralysis." Katherine nods in agreement. "Silver?"

"Silver," she whispers.Β 

What are the odds the creature that killed Russell's family is the one that brought them together?

"Thank you for telling me," Katherine says.

There's a little bit of hope in his eyes, a glimmer of hope, that she'll talk, too. But she doesn't.

She doesn't get to unburden herself.

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