How could I stand here and not be moved by you? (Katherine, Peter, Aly, Lydia, Thomas)

[lamentableshade.livejournal.com]

Katherine had tried to kill herself the second the angels had left her alone. She didn't belong here. Not in this world where she found only pain. There was nothing for her here. Her daughter had moved on. Peter had moved on. No one loved her. No one cared.

She couldn't even kill herself correctly. The wounds had just healed over. Her skin had closed up. What she had once accomplished was now impossible. And when the angels cast her out into the night, alone and scared, Katherine knew there was no way out. She could do nothing. She was stuck in the world she had willingly left behind and she was alone.

It had taken her nearly a full day to get to London. And even more time to find Peter's house as she didn't quite remember the way. He lived in an entirely different place and she had only been there a handful of times. He had to help her. He just had to. If he didn't, she was lost.

Katherine stood on the stoop, shivering in the night air because she was dressed far too lightly. And not all of it was from the cold. She knocked and she waited, holding her breath, not that it mattered.

Aly Kemp answered the door and to her credit, she didn't scream. Her eyes widened slowly and she blinked several times before reacting verbally at all. Then, all she did was scream for Peter because if this was an angel using Katherine's face, he would know.

Peter's reaction was hardly so reserved. The second he caught sight of Katherine, it was as if he slammed into a brick wall and he went from running to his wife's aid to frozen in seconds flat. He stared at Katherine, opened-mouthed and then he shook his head. "No. Oh no, no."

Katherine stared at Peter, her arms wrapped around herself, her green eyes full of sorrow. "Peter..."

Peter recoiled back in horror and he put a hand over his mouth. Memories of the day he had found her dying in her shower slammed into him and he let out one choked sob.

"Katherine! Are you in there?! Let me in!" He received no response. "Shit. I'm coming in!" He yelled and then he threw himself in to the door. It took several tries, but the door gave. And there, sitting on the floor of the shower was exactly what Peter had dreaded to find. Katherine was curled in on herself, looking dreadfully pale. Her arms were limp at her sides. Long lines of red spilled blood in a swirl down the drain hole with the water from the shower. Katherine's life was slipping away, to be claimed by the London drainage system. Peter made a horrified sound and he ran into the shower, not caring that it got him wet. Not caring that Katherine bled on him. "No! Nonononono! NO! Thomas!"

Thomas was hovering behind Peter, completely horrified. He had never liked Katherine, but he had never wished this on her! "I'll call an ambulance!" Thomas yelled and he ran into the living room to locate a phone.

"Oh, Katie.....oh god, I'm so sorry!"

Katherine looked up at him, her beautiful green eyes glazed. Peter loved those eyes. He began to cry in earnest as he held her in his arms. "Peter..." She said, her voice weak.

"I'm so sorry, Katherine. Fuck!" He bit out the word, as if it itself was to blame. Then he reached up to turn off the shower. He pulled his jacket off and then his shirt. "Here. We can stop the bleeding. We can. Thomas is getting someone! Thomas will get someone. You'll be fine, Katie. I know you will be. Just hold on, okay? Please? Please...fuck. Katie!" Peter tried to press his shirt to Katherine's wounds to quell the bleeding. Tried to remember how to make a tourniquet, but it was too late. Katherine couldn't hold on. There wasn't anything to hold on to.

"I thought...you had left me...." Katherine said, her voice barely audible.

Peter pressed his face against Katherine's and he shook his head, his wet hair dripping in her eyes. "Never. Never, Katherine. Don't you leave me either!"

"Peter...I failed...can't..."

"No. No you didn't fail. I did. We'll get you help, you just have to hang on." Peter's voice was becoming more frantic. More childlike. As if he was once again the 14-year-old boy who had found his mother hanging there and he'd asked her softly, 'why?'. His voice filled with what could have been mistaken for wonder were the scene not so heartbreaking. "Katie...please.."

"Too hard, Peter..." She looked up at him again. "Tell Lydia I love her."

"She knows. But I'll...I'll tell her. Please just...it won't be long. THOMAS! TELL THEM TO HURRY!" Peter clung to Katherine, but he could feel her slipping even as she was in his arms. "Katherine...I love you. I love you, please?" It was hard to talk through the sobs, but he had to get it out. She had to hear.

"Peter....I love...y..." Katherine went limp in Peter's arms and when he pulled back in horror, her eyes rolled back in her head. "Katherine?" He asked, her name turning into a frantic sob. "Katie? No. Oh no! Katherine!" Peter shook her, but there was nothing he could do. Nothing anyone could have done by the time they'd arrived. But there was much he could have done before now. "Oh, Katie..."

Aly glanced back and forth between them and she figured by Peter's reaction that this was no illusion. "Come in, Katherine..." Aly reached a hand out to guide Katherine into their home. "Can you tell us what's happening?"

"I...I don't...an angel." Katherine looked up at Peter. "I never knew what you did. What you saw. The things you left me for. Peter, I never knew." Katherine's eyes were full of apology. "An angel brought me...I didn't want to go. There was a woman...she had blond hair and she kept laughing-"

"Aurelia." Peter hissed, because Aurelia had brought Bianca to mess with his head too. "Fucking bitch."

Katherine cast her eyes to the floor. "I'm so sorry..."

Peter sniffed and then he stepped forward to take Katherine into his arms. She started to sob into his neck and he just held her tightly, feeling much like weeping himself. Their tearful reunion was cute short, however, when Thomas came down the stairs with Lydia and she caught sight of Peter and Katherine. Lydia's jaw dropped and she shook her head. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" She screeched and then she raced up the stairs again to slam her door, leaving the rest of them standing there, dumbfounded.

Thomas raised his eyebrows and he simply waved at Katherine. "Hi." He said, which seemed to be all anyone could really do.