Kate Gregson

It's super important for Kate to have people over to her new place, mostly so they don't decide she's become some rich bitch snob who never wants to see her friends anymore because they're not rich. Truthfully, she isn't rich either. Not even close. The lottery winnings had been enough to pay off her student debt, which has been a huge help, and put a sizable down payment on the condo, but they still have a mortgage they have to pay every month. Granted, it's way lower than it might have been otherwise, lower than their rest at Dimera was, and not having to make payments on her student loans has been a big help, but she's definitely not rich.

She's still going to have to take out a business loan when it comes time for her to take over the Dressing Room, but at least her credit looks awesome now, and she thinks there's probably little chance of being declined. Her bosses aren't retiring for another year or so, but they're using that time to teach her everything they can and she's a little startled to realize she might actually own a shop in a little over a year.

Which is why she needs to goof off now as much as she possibly can.

She's waiting for Carla Jean to join her now and they don't really have any specific plans, but Kate is looking forward to that. They'll figure something out, they always do, and mostly she just wants to spend some time with her friend.

Kate isn't sure what time it is when one of the nurses takes pity on her and gently leads her to a bathroom near the hospital waiting room. The nurse pumps soap into her hands from the dispenser and the sound makes Kate think of that night in the Barnabeez bathroom, Alice's hand pressed over her mouth, filled with soap, the way it had tasted, the way it had foamed against her tongue. She'd hated Alice so much in that moment and now all she can think is that Alice would know how to handle this. She wouldn't just sit in the waiting room in stunned silence, she would cruelly dig deeper and deeper, always using that slightly higher pitched tone of voice to hide just how mean she was really being, and she would make the doctors tell her something. She would swoop in and she would take over everything and another time Kate would hate her for that, too, but right now it's what she needs.

She needs Alice.

"There, that's better," the nurse says softly and Kate looks down at her hands, surprised to find them clean. Her tank top is still stiff with blood and her jeans are streaked with it, drying dark on the denim, but her hands are clean and Kate nods. It's better.

"Come back out when you're ready," the nurse tells her. "I'll get you a blanket, you must be so cold."

She is. She's freezing, but she only notices it now that it's been pointed out to her. They can't give her sweater back to her, it's soaked with Newt's blood, and she thinks her jacket is still probably lying in the alley.

Looking up again, she means to say thank you, but the nurse is gone and Kate's left staring at herself in the mirror. She's pale and there's a streak of blood on her jaw, but other than that, she looks exactly like she always does and she wonders if that's normal. She shouldn't look so much like herself when Newt's in a room back in the hospital somewhere with doctors working on him, doctors who won't tell her anything or who can't tell her anything and she isn't sure which would be worse. She shouldn't look so normal when everything is so wrong.

It's probably too late to call anyone, but she finds she has her phone in her hands without knowing how it's gotten there and she's texting Carla Jean without thinking, because she needs someone here with her. She can't have Alice, no matter how badly she wants her, no matter how badly she needs to wrap herself in the scent of talcum powder and cooking sherry, but she needs someone and she can't think of anyone else who'll come in the middle of the night.

The nurse has a blanket, as promised, and Kate lets her drape it over her shoulders as she sinks down into a chair again, not entirely aware of the walk she'd made back from the bathroom. But she's here now and she has a blanket and Carla Jean is coming.

And she still doesn't know anything.