Calamitous (Kaylor)

9

A few hours after the interrogation, Lily took Karlie to visit Catastrophe's cell. The commissioner and the chief were already there, having a clearly one-sided argument with the girl. Catastrophe was sitting on her bed, a bored expression on her face, as the two men continued to press her for information and ask why she refused to cooperate.

Martha was also there, trying to do a physical exam, but she was struggling. "Would you two kindly shut up?!" she finally snapped. "How am I supposed to do my job when you're sending my patient's heart rate through the roof..."

"She should be nervous! We can't keep her here for the rest of her miserable life. If she chooses to continue resisting, she'll find herself in some maximum security prison surrounded by people who are just as bad if not worse than she is. Or we could be merciful and consider the death penalty. She's earned it many times over."

Catastrophe did not obviously react to the conversation, but Karlie thought she looked a little more pale. The detectives hung back, not wanting to risk their superiors' anger, but they were listening and watching closely.

"Aren't you done yet?" the chief blurted after a moment. "Why do we even still have you come here, anyway?"

"Because this woman fell almost forty feet and nearly died only ten days ago," Martha spoke brusquely.

"She seems fine to me. She was able to walk to the interrogation room today, and clearly still has an attitude problem. I don't believe we need your services here any longer," the chief said. The commissioner looked a little surprised but didn't challenge him.

"Are you aware of how serious this is? She needs to be monitored and cared for daily," Martha snarled. "Which of you is going to make sure none of her wounds is leaking pus?" The commissioner looked a little green at the idea, but the chief cut in quickly.

"I'm sure we'll figure it out. Now please return to your station at the hospital. Catastrophe is no longer your responsibility." Martha huffed with aggravation, picked up her bag, and flounced out, sending a hateful glare at the men as she went.

They stood there a little longer, watching Catastrophe sit in silence, maybe trying to annoy her enough to elicit another outburst. They weren't successful, however, since the blonde turned to face the back wall and pointedly ignored their presence.

"We know you're scared, Catastrophe," the chief stated. "But things will become much worse in a few days if you don't start helping us out. I can promise you that." Still receiving no answer, he growled with annoyance and marched away with the commissioner, allowing Karlie and Lily to approach the bars.

Lily stepped up first and called out a quiet greeting. "Oh my god," Catastrophe groaned, turning to face the front again. "If you've brought any more of that disgusting bread, I'm gonna throttle -" she cut herself off quickly. "Oh. It's you."

Karlie awkwardly waved in greeting. You idiot. Why did you do that? She looked to Lily for help but noticed that her friend had already slipped away. Great. "Yeah, I wanted to see how you were doing."

"Just swell. What could be better? I'm going to spend the rest of my life in a cell. If I'm lucky, that might only be a few more weeks. I've been treated very well, the food and company are great, and I'm recovering wonderfully from the assassination attempt."

"Do you know how to hold a normal conversation?" Karlie asked, sounding concerned. Catastrophe seemed to ponder this for a moment, keen blue eyes assessing the taller girl before she exhaled and dropped her aggressive posture.

"Yeah, sorry about that," she said in a much milder tone. "It's a defense mechanism."

"I figured," Karlie said, drawing up a chair so she could sit in front of the bars. "Can you tell me why you don't want to say where the headquarters is?" She observed the blonde's body immediately tense up again.

"Who wants to know?" she growled. "Which FBI agent put you up to this?"

"Nobody," Karlie was quick to placate her. "I was just curious." Catastrophe went quiet again.

"Is this the part where you tell me that anything I say can and will be used against me?" she joked bitterly. Even though she was trying to hide it, Karlie could tell that there was genuine sadness in her voice. Maybe she just really needs someone to talk to?

"No, no. It's off the record," Karlie said hurriedly. Great. Now we're both in deep shit if the commissioner and chief find out. Me and my big mouth.

Catastrophe looked surprised. "Really?" she said softly. "You...you just... want to talk to me? With no ulterior motives?"

"Well, unless you count me helping you reform yourself as an ulterior motive, yes." The blonde let out a short bark of laughter at this.

"Good luck with that. I'm rotten to the core."

"I don't believe that." The two stared at each other for a few minutes, neither blinking, almost as if they were having a staring contest. Karlie decided to break the silence. "Look, I just -"

"They're the only family I've ever had." Catastrophe spoke quickly and broke their eye contact, choosing instead to stare at the ground.

Karlie blinked. She hadn't expected it to be that easy. "Um...what?"

"Promise you won't tell anybody this?" the blonde pleaded. Karlie nodded hurriedly.

"Yes, of course."

"My parents abandoned me when I was six," Catastrophe began. "They kicked me out on the streets. I wandered for a few days, sleeping in alleys and barely surviving, until Justice and Luna took me in." She saw Karlie open her mouth to ask a question and preemptively answered, "Justice and Luna were the gang's leaders before me, and they practically raised me. They're dead now. Helicopter accident."

Karlie nodded. She wondered how the other girl could speak so callously about her parental figures' deaths, but she figured it might be a sore point and didn't want to press her too hard. "So they became your family?"

"In a sense. They took care of me. But there was little room for affection. I was there to learn, and I was trained in all forms of fighting and strategy. I was working with the gang by the time I was ten. At fourteen I was leading missions. At nineteen, I became the leader."

 She had to grow up so young. No wonder her personality's so cold. "How old are you now?" Karlie asked, curiously. No ulterior motives here.

"I'm twenty five. You?" The detective was a little surprised that Catastrophe seemed interested in learning something about her, but answered eagerly.

"Twenty three."

"Huh. I thought you'd be older than that, considering your position."

"Maybe I'm really good at my job," Karlie said.

"If you were, you'd have caught me ages ago."

"Yeah, well I didn't even have to catch you. Your girlfriend did all the work for me." Catastrophe's expression shuttered, and Karlie realized what she had said. "Wait, I didn't mean to say that, I'm sorry -"

"Please go away," the blonde whispered. Her voice broke, and she was blinking rapidly as if she was about to cry.

"But I want to get to know you more!" Karlie protested. "I didn't mean to upset you."

"Just leave!" Catastrophe's soft voice was replaced by her hard, angry one. "I don't want to talk anymore! Leave me alone!" Tears started to stream down her cheeks, and she turned away to hide her face, furiously wiping at her eyes with her wrist. "Please," she said weakly, almost too quiet for Karlie to hear.

Karlie sighed regretfully. "Okay, I'm going," she said. "But I'll be back tomorrow, okay? We can keep talking. I won't tell anyone anything you said. A promise is a promise. I'm sorry for what I said, I really don't know what I was thinking."

Catastrophe didn't acknowledge her. She had turned her back to Karlie and had her face buried in her hands. "O...kay," Karlie said awkwardly. "See you later, I guess." She turned and walked away quickly.

Why did I have to say that? she scolded herself. It was going so well. She was opening up and I ruined it because she made a slightly snarky comment. Now she'll probably never talk to me again. Karlie wandered off to find Lily, feeling very low and trying her best not to think about the blonde girl who was crying herself to sleep in her cell.