Timeless

Chapter 16

A/N: You didn't think I was just going to leave it there, now did you?

Kathryn was a ghost of a girl. She no longer felt like a whole human being. In some small part of her, she knew that the codependency that her brother and herself had exhibited over the years was going to be the cause of her downfall and ruin. They had always just followed each other around, never letting one be without the other.

Then John Egan had met Gale Cleven and things had changed . At first, Kathryn was certain it was for the better. Because they made each other better, they had each other's backs, they completed each other in ways that she couldn't even begin to comprehend. But she should've known the minute that Gale had gone down that her brother didn't ever intend on coming back either.

It was a raw and festering wound that tore at the very heartstrings of her being and there was no stopping that. Those first few days of them being gone—it made the base just feel empty . And it wasn't because only one plane had returned out of the dozens they had sent out. It was because her brother and Buck had been the shining light and beating heart of the 100th. And without them—

Things were dimmer. Things were more hazy and unclear. Things just didn't feel real.

So when she had a bag packed and was loaded into a car, Kathryn Egan went quietly. She didn't protest, she didn't fight it, she just sat in that car next to those pilots and she didn't say a damn word.

She had heard of Coombe House, of course. Dozens of men that had seen too much, had been through too much—they had been sent here. Colonel Harding wasn't a big fan of the option, but it did seem to help the pilots. Kathryn Egan was not a pilot though. And so for her to be here was a clear and blatant way to get her out of the way for a bit.

Tatty had explained to her, rather kindly, that Kathryn was going to help for a week there rather than be on the base. She wondered if it was because she could no longer muster a smile for anyone or if it was because the simple weight of her being John Egan's sister was just too much for people. Either way, Kathryn didn't like the prospect of being sent away to help like this.

Kathryn wanted to stay. Wanted to keep working. Wanted to stay busy. Because if she could stay busy, then she could keep the treacherous grief from boiling over. If she could stay busy, then she'd never have a free second to feel the burdensome weight of devastation. She didn't want to write to her mother. She didn't want to have to go through her brother's things. And she knew because she wasn't actually engaged to Buck—there would be nothing for her. Nothing but the ring that hung around her neck that no one except her brother even knew about.

The reception from the American Red Cross was nice . Truth be told, Kathryn wasn't quite sure what to make of the entire thing. She had barely spoken a word since Rosenthal's group had returned—and she hadn't said anything the entire drive to Coombe House.

But the minute she entered the room she had been given, Kathryn just felt like she wanted to break something. It was immaculate—right down to the dusting. Not a single speck was out of place and it barely seemed lived in. But it felt like somewhere that should by all accounts be safe and good. It wasn't though.

The bed was too comfortable. Just a sign that she was somewhere that she shouldn't be. Why should she get a bed when her brother was somewhere out there in Germany—either dead in a ditch, being tortured, or in some Prisoner of War camp? She didn't want it anymore than she wanted to go home.

Kathryn Egan had decided, a long time ago really, that if her brother wasn't coming back from Europe, then neither was she. She would stay here for the rest of her natural life if it meant waiting for him to come back. Because they had come into this together and they were going to leave together—consequences be damned.