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He's heard something about Kate, but he's not sure he believes it.

It was just a few days ago that he sat there on the floor of her flat and watched the paramedics take her away, that blank look on her face. Chris still can't get it out of his fuckin' head, can't stop thinking that somehow it's his fault, that if he'd turned up early, maybe it wouldn't have happened. He would've been there.

But another one of Chris's mates has called him, found him in the phone book or something and said Kate's not dead. It makes no sense; he'd been there and the EMT's had said it was true. But he has to go by her place anyway.

If he's alive, then there's no reason Kate can't be as well. He's supposed to be in the ground somewhere in Bristol, somewhere underneath a wooden cross with his name on it, after all.

He's standing outside of her door for a full three minutes before he remembers to knock, hand shaking a bit as he wonders whether or not it'll actually be Kate who answers.

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"I'm—" Chris starts and stops, and frowns for a second, " 'm glad you're not dead."

Maybe it goes without saying considering he tried to bring her back, even if he didn't really know what he was doing and probably would've mucked it up, even if she was dying for real, but he reckons it doesn't hurt to say it.

"Besides, they send you to an island for two years after, so it's a load of wank anyway."

She laughs at that, a tired laugh, but a laugh all the same. "I already did the island thing, maybe they'd let me skip that part."

There's so much for her in Darrow. The island had been good for her and there are things she misses about it -- the people, mostly, but the weather wasn't half bad either -- but this city has become home a lot faster than the island did. She knows she can't go back there. "I like this place. I don't want to leave."

"No way, you'd have to go back and do that bit all over again, and then you'll end up here again," Chris says, and it's good to hear her laugh about it. It's fuckin' horrible, they both know that, but what's done is done now, he reckons.

"Trust me, Kate, I'm an expert on it." He doesn't want her to leave either, that much he's sure of.

"Well, I don't like your rules," she says, but she's smiling as she pours a cup of tea for both of them, then brings them over to the living room. She's careful to set them both on the table before she flops down on the couch, sinking into the cushions. Lately she's spent a lot of nights here on the couch, a blanket pulled up around her shoulders, Jeff sleeping at her feet. It's just easier to sleep out here with the TV on.

"I like it here way too much. I've got you and Harley and my stupid dog and a nice guy I'm pretty sure likes me," she says. "And a future, maybe. I always felt so directionless back there."

Chris takes a seat as well, reaching over to the table to grab the mug Kate's set down for him. He's got a feeling that it's going to taste weird, like it always seems to when Americans make tea, but fuck it. Allowances are gonna be made, especially when your mate's come back from the dead.

"North," Chris says with conviction, nodding once, "S'always a good direction, I've found."

"North, huh?" she asks with a grin, holding her mug in both her hands, warming them against the outside of it. "I guess there's only far north you can get in Darrow."

And she means what she's said, she doesn't want to leave. "What's so great about north?"

He considers her question for a moment, even though he knows the answer he gave her is just something he's pulled out of his arse.

"Dunno," he concedes, "Though, the north pole's the one with the penguins, right? Those are pretty brilliant."

She laughs again and she's suddenly really, really glad Chris has come around to visit. For the most part, she's still pretty sure she hasn't actually explain just how grateful she is that he found her, but maybe it's not possible. Maybe if she just keeps trying to explain it, it'll get weird, so she can leave it like it is, but she hopes he knows.

"I still don't think you could get far enough north in Darrow to find penguins," she says. "I'm pretty sure there were penguins on the island one year, though."

He's not completely convinced that they won't ever get penguins in Darrow, though. Fuck knows when it comes to this place, really.

"Moose as well," Chris says, and he takes a sip of his tea. It's not bad, definitely better than he'd initially thought it might be.

"Did you ever know Billy? We ran into one that just like.... just fuckin' stared at us. For what felt like ages. It was well weird."

"Can't moose be like, super aggressive and mean?" Kate asks, smiling. She remembers Billy well, remembers how weirded out Harry had been when he'd shown up to a costume party dressed as Madonna, cone bra and all.

"I mean, I'm from Kansas, it's not like I see a lot of moose, but I feel like they trample people a lot in Alaska or wherever there's a lot of them," she continues. "Did it seem mean?"

"I think it was confused," Chris says, "I mean, if you were a moose and suddenly you wound up on an island, wouldn't you be confused? I'm not a moose and all that was confusing enough, y'know?"

Though now, he's started to wonder how it would have been, if he'd ended up on the island as a moose. Somehow, he reckons Cassie would've worked out what had happened.

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