No More Excuses//Katelena

5: Prison Sentence for Two(2)

It's Sunday which means update!! Double update because these two chapters kinda go together <3

Hooray to Kate's depression and the reminder of mommy issues :)))

Content warnings: medication, Eleanor, prison, missing person's poster, depression

Kate spends the rest of the day in a confused daze, forcing her body to go through the motions of cleaning her apartment while she lets her mind wander. She sweeps, vacuums, and then mops the floors, all while going over the conversation with Yelena to pick out every detail she can.

The honey blonde curl of Yelena's hair falling over her shoulder, getting caught in the buttons of her jacket. The flash of her silver rings as she made mac n cheese and pancakes and cleaned as she went. The soft lilt of her accent when she was calm, the way it got thicker when she became aggravated.

Goddamnit Kate Bishop.

Kate picked up her room, made her bed, and cleaned the windows while humming the Taylor Swift song Yelena had been playing earlier. She found herself wondering what the woman's favorite song was, what it sounded like coming from her lips, if the lyrics meant anything special to her.

Lucky follows her around half of the time, his tail wagging at the smallest bit of attention and whenever he's able to steal a sock from her without getting caught. For the rest of it, he perches himself on the couch and either stares at her or sleeps, his chest rumbling with little doggy snores.

By the time that the dinner hour rolls around, Kate's body is aching and her brain feels swollen, and Lucky looks rather refreshed. She lets herself indulge in some floor time, and her puppy joins her where she lays on the carpet. He snuggles under her arm and gives a happy little sigh.

Kate buries her face in his scruff and scratches at his ears slowly, feeling rather tempted to take another nap. But who's to say Yelena wouldn't show back up to drag her outside for fresh air or just kill her? Kate wouldn't put it past her.

She eventually gets up off the floor with a grumpy mumble at the thought.

Kate somehow convinces herself to go to the grocery store and look for actual food instead of giving in to living on pizza and mac-n-cheese and whatever God-given concoction Yelena came up with. (If she even came back. Kate didn't know. She secretly hoped that she would.) Lucky watches her sullenly before the door is shut on his face, and Kate mutters a little sorry to him before striding to the elevator, shrugging her coat on.

The air is bitter and cold once she steps outside, and Kate glances longingly at the warm interior of the pizza shop below her apartment before tucking further into her warm layers. She misses the Christmas lights and general coziness that Christmas was capable of bringing to New York. It was almost easy to ignore the dark parts of it all.

A missing person's poster stapled to a bench brings her mind to her mother. Eleanor Bishop had been sentenced to 30 years in prison, but Kate doubted it would really last that long seeing as she had a lot of fucking money. Either way, Kate felt a needle sink through her chest at the thought of her mother behind bars on Christmas Day. And New Years. And every day since then. And every day into her late 70's.

Eleanor deserved it. Kate knew that. She had killed Armand, conspired with the mafia, and tried to get Clint killed.

But it was her mom. And Kate missed her.

Her shopping went in a haze, and Kate barely registered what she purchased or how much she spent. But at least she had actual fruits and vegetables in her fridge, and maybe Yelena would see that and be less of a pain in her ass.