She had let her secret slip. Now the only thing she could do was to wait for life as she knew it to end.

Kate lay limply on the couch. Darkness had already fallen, though she made no motion to check the time. The darkness grew deeper, then lighter. She wasn't sure whether she had slept any at the point where dawn broke.

Somehow, she retained the sense to call in sick for the day.

No point in going when it was all over. Well, strictly speaking she could run away and try to start over somewhere else. She went back and forth on the idea, but it was a big step. If she wanted to get another job in medicine she would have to show her papers. Was magical forgery a thing? She didn't know and wasn't eager to learn how well those tended to hold up. Running away meant abandoning her dads. People might still recognize her. A witch working as a surgeon? Now that was a story for the news, and they'd definitely plaster up a photo of her face right next to their headlines. That would surely expose her, new identity or not. What if she went for a total makeover? The thought unsettled her. An irrational urge to hold on to what little sense of self she had rose up from deep within.

Perhaps she didn't have a large social circle, but she had her family, she had acquaintances, she had colleagues she mostly got along with. The thought of starting all over again terrified her.

Yet, with each passing moment option of running away was becoming less feasible. The problem was that she lacked the energy to pull herself off the couch, let alone make all the necessary decisions and actually carry them out. Not to mention, how could she disappear without leaving a large hole in her parents' hearts?

If the knowledge of her being a witch didn't tear open an even bigger hole in the first place.

She pressed her head into a pillow and cried for the umpteenth time that day. Night. Early morning. Whatever. Her sense of time had broken down as a result of her distress.

The day went on and she alternated between sitting in a daze with both legs pulled up under her, trying to get her thoughts straight and formulating a plan, and crying into her pillow out of frustration or overwhelm or the inability to decide on a plan, or a combination of all those.

It was afternoon by the time she came to the realization that she hadn't even thought to turn on the lights in her apartment.

Close to midnight when she realized it was time to turn them off and go to sleep.

A knock on the front door resounded. Kate startled. It was too late. They'd caught up with her. She curled into the fetal position on her couch and froze. The knocking continued.

Then, eventually; "Kate? Kate, are you okay? It's me."

Mari's voice.

Did she know already? Probably not, or she wouldn't have taken that tone. Kate dragged herself off the couch and went to unlock the door. Knowing Mari she would either keep it up until Kate relented, or enlist someone's else's help to gain entry. Kate would take dealing with one person over dealing with a crowd.

"Come on in," Kate croaked, surprised by how dry her throat felt.

"You look terrible as terrible as you sound," Mari exclaimed with wide eyes. She marched straight over to the sink and tried the cupboards until she was able to locate a glass, which she filled with water and brought over to Kate. "Drink."

Kate shuffled back over to the couch, followed by Mari who made herself comfortable on the opposite end.

"Why are you here?" Kate finally managed.

"Well," Mari leaned back and stretched. "You called in sick, in spite of having several time-critical patients on your list for today. Pretty easy to come to the conclusion that you either caught my totally awful vomit bug or something really bad happened." She placed one elbow on the table and fixed her gaze on Kate. "So, which one is it?"

"And you decide to check on me when it's almost midnight?" Kate frowned.

"We both regularly work on-call shifts, so I figured it wasn't a huge deal," Mari shrugged. As always, the woman followed her own brand of logic. She pointed a finger at Kate's face. "Now out with it. Heartbreak or heartburn?"

Kate held back the urge to point out that neither of Mari's options made logical sense. "I caught your bug," she lied. "You were right, it's horrible."

Mari frowned and crossed her arms. "Why are you lying to me?"

Kate realized why Mari knew at roughly the same she spoke her accusation. No bucket. If she truly had the vomiting sickness she would have had one at her side at all times. She needed another lie, right on the spot. A half-truth seemed the easiest, so that was what she settled on.

"I'm sorry. It's because of Rose."

Mari's expression softened. "Sorry I couldn't be there to keep her focus off you. What exactly went down between you two? I mean, you've had issues before but it never kept you away from work."

Kate bit her lip. She would have to choose her words with care. Sticking to half-truths seemed like the best course of action. "It makes me too nervous when she's paying attention to me. Having you there at least allowed me a moment of relief when I needed it."

Mari sighed. "You could just have asked if I was coming to work today, you know? You've got my number and all. No reason to leave your patients hanging.

An icy feeling spread through Kate's gut. She had messed up yet again. She swallowed hard as her brain began the frantic search for a good excuse. Or any remotely plausible excuse at all.