< March 26th 2019 >
After a long night which involved very little sleep, the couple get awoken by the radio that Diego had purchased, tuning it so that it picked up the signals from the police force and allowed him to know everything that was happening around the city. Kate had never been happy with the radio as she knew that it was illegal and Dora would hate to know about it but she also knew that it kept Diego busy and helping out was something that he really loved. She wouldn't take that away from him. However, she was really not happy with another early wake up call from a technological device and as soon as she heard the static of the radio, wanted nothing more than to throw it across the room so that they would never hear it again. Diego jumped up from his sleeping position, his arms still around Kate but his eyes were focused on the radio that was perched on the table and he was listening intently to the message that was being broadcasted. It made sense to him as he had learned the codes at the academy but Kate didn't really follow what was being said; not only did she not understand the codes but she had just woken up and was more tired than when she was woken by Dora's phone call the night before.
"What does that mean?" She huffed, attempting to roll over and go back to sleep but Diego was climbing over her to get out of bed.
He rushed over to his pile of clothes that had been dumped last night and quickly put them back on, not caring that he was wearing the same thing as yesterday because there was no time for an outfit change. "There was an attack at the department store."
"Shit, another attack?" Kate questioned, sitting up in bed and leaning back on the headboard as she watched her boyfriend grabbing his belt of knives and preparing to head straight to the scene of the crime.
"It can't be a coincidence; they have to be linked. Shit, I forgot I promised to take you to work."
"Don't worry about it." Kate said, gently putting a hand on his arm to calm him down and it seemed to work because as soon as he felt her touch, his muscles relaxed slightly. "I can walk today; I need the exercise."
Diego stifled a laugh under his breath. "You seemed fine last night."
Gasping at his inappropriate comment, she slapped his arm from where she was sitting in the bed and rolled her eyes. "You better not say anything like that to Dora, she'll be there, guaranteed she's already on the case."
"I promise I won't mention any of our late-night activities to your sister – unless they happen to come up in conversation."
Kate smacked his arm again, making him laugh. "When would they ever come up in conversation?"
"You never know. Look, I'll pick you up after work to make up for it, okay?"
"Okay." She smiled as he leaned down and pressed a chaste kiss to her lips, obviously he was desperate to get out of the boxing club and head to the crime scene so she wasn't going to hold him back but she worried when he got involved with stuff like this. She knew that he could take care of himself but if the police ever got involved then he wouldn't have a chance, Dora was right, he could get in a lot of trouble if he kept messing with crime scenes. "Just be careful, please."
"I'm always careful." He replied over his shoulder as he left the boiler room, leaving Kate to wonder about what her boyfriend would be getting up to while she was working.
Even though the attack on the diner had only happened two nights before, Agnes was quick to reopen once the place had a thorough clean. The dead bodies had been removed and the cleaners had made good work of the blood splattered all over the room. No one would know that it had been the site of a mass murder, apart from everyone who had read about it in the newspaper. Kate felt uncomfortable as she made her way through the diner, watching people at booths who seemed unaware of the tragedy that took place only days ago. But she respected Agnes and the decision to re-open, so she didn't say anything about the diner. She just headed to the back room, put down her belongings and got ready for her shift; baking some of the donuts for a fresh display and making sure they had enough ingredients for the new flavours that they'd brainstormed together.
When it got to lunch, the diner was basically empty and only one man in a suit had ordered a donut; meaning that Kate was able to bake whatever she wanted in the kitchen and was trying out one of the recipes that Grace had given to her. Agnes was fine with the kitchen being used for other things, she was more than happy when finding out that Kate was using it to try her own recipes out and encouraged her to bake whatever she wanted, whenever she felt inspired. But even though Agnes was acting like the kind older woman that she always was, her employee could see that there was something hidden behind her eyes and noticed the panic on her features whenever the bell above the door rang. It was as though she was waiting for the killer to come back, even though no one knew what the killer looked like. After the man in the suit had left, Kate stood behind the counter and watched as Agnes went around the room, scrubbing already clean tables just to give herself something to do as they waited for new customers to arrive. This was the time that she decided to talk to her boss and make sure that she really was okay, because it seemed like she was only pretending to be fine and there was something else going on in her mind.
"Agnes, are you sure that you're okay to be back in work?" Kate questioned, leaning on the counter and taking a deep breath when Agnes stopped what she was doing to turn to face her. She was half expecting to be yelled at for asking a personal question like that on shift but there was no one around and Agnes had never yelled at anyone before.
The older woman just smiled and tilted her head slightly. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well, I heard about what happened the other night." She explained but when nothing registered with Agnes, she had to explain directly what she was talking about, even though she hated to bring it up. "The attack."
"Of course, you did, it was all over the news." Agnes shrugged before continuing to wipe down the same table that she had been working on for the last ten minutes, which she was sure was perfectly clean but didn't have the heart to tell her boss. Instead, Kate decided to keep talking about the attack and hoped that Agnes would realise that she could admit she was afraid, or admit that she may have rushed opening the shop. Anything that would make her feel better.
"My sister is the lead detective on the case, she got the call when I was at home. Look, I know how important this store is to you but if you need a few more days to come to terms with everything then I can hold down the fort?"
"Kate, dear Kate, you are my best worker." Agnes complimented her, walking over to the counter and putting down her cleaning rag; smiling at the younger girl who was only concerned about her. She reached over and placed her hand over Kate's, hoping to express more comfort to the youngster about the attacks that didn't seem to worry her that much. "You make donuts that could compete with my own and I've been making them since before you were born. But there's a lot of things that I've seen, this attack wasn't the first time that I'd seen evil and it won't be the last. Staying at home won't help me move on quicker, the best thing for me is to be here."
"As long as, you're sure." Kate sighed, knowing that this wasn't going to go anywhere else as Agnes was sure that she was perfectly fine and not effected by the attack; but it was hard not to be, she had been the only employee working that night and had hidden in the kitchen until the killer left.
"I'm fine. Now, how is that boyfriend of yours?"
"Diego? He's...Diego." She shrugged, not really knowing how else to describe her boyfriend and his behaviour without accidentally spilling too much information. But she knew that Agnes was someone to be trusted and decided to give her slightly more information than others. "His Father passed away this week, so he's not taking the news well."
"At least he has you."
"Doesn't seem like that makes much difference, just feels like I'm getting on his nerves."
"He appreciates you more than you realise." She grinned, patting her hand before grabbing the cleaning products again and spraying the counter for any crumbs that may have been left by their most recent customer. Agnes had a thing for love stories and was obsessed with the idea of her favourite employee dating their handsome regular customer; she knew that the only reason Diego had come every day was to bump into Kate and after a few months of rejecting their feelings, they had now been together for three years. "Trust me, I've seen the way that he looks at you. He loves you a lot more than you think."
Kate rolled her eyes, thinking back to the argument that they always seem to have and wondering whether they would ever move forward in their relationship if they had the same argument all the time. "He has a bad way of showing it."
"All men do. You'll get used to it."
"Agnes, could I take my break now?" She wondered, thinking about what she could do to earn extra brownie points with Diego's family and even though he had told her never to go back to the academy she knew that somehow, she would end up there. Besides, if he was running around obscuring crime scenes which pissed off her sister then Kate could drop by the academy and bake something for his siblings. So that they were even. Not because she wanted to get to know his family, make good impressions on them and learn all about what Diego was like as a child from the people who wouldn't cloud the stories.
Usual bosses wouldn't be happy with the number of breaks or days off that their employee was taking but Kate had worked at the donut shop for several years now and was the star employee at the diner; she was trusted to make up for her time off at some point. Besides, the diner was extremely quiet today and there was no point in keeping her around if they weren't busy, Agnes could handle the place on her own and was happy to know that Kate was thinking about possibly visiting her boyfriend; something the romantic was very excited about. "Of course, anything you need help with?"
"I'm going to drop by the Academy, see if anyone's hungry." She explained as she ran into the break room to grab her coat and bag, more than excited about her plan to see his siblings again. "Maybe that'll earn me some brownie points with his family."
It didn't take long to walk over to the Umbrella Academy, but as she approached the gates the whole building looked more intimidating than it had before; possibly because she was entering it alone and had no idea what was happening on the other side of the door. Anyone could be inside; anything could be happening inside and for a second, she contemplated just leaving because she didn't want to cause a scene but then she noticed that the front door had been left slightly open and that sealed the deal for her. She was going in. Pushing the door open slowly, it made a rather loud creaking noise and yet no one came rushing down to see who had stepped into the house. She wondered if maybe the siblings weren't home, and maybe they had left the door open accidentally on their way out but then she also wondered if someone had broken into the house and that was why the door was left open. She turned down one of the corridors but was quickly slammed into a wall with a knife against her throat; panicking she looked straight into the eyes of her attacker but rolled her eyes when she was met with the familiar eyes of Diego.
As soon as he recognised her, he removed the knife and let her go so that she fell away from the wall and smacked his arm. "What the hell was that?"
"I thought you were an intruder." He snapped back, narrowing his eyes at her. "What are you doing here, you're supposed to be at work?"
"Agnes let me have an early break, I brought some leftovers and thought that your siblings may enjoy them." She tried to walk past him but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back, not happy with her unannounced arrival and definitely not happy that she believed she could waltz into the academy with donuts for his siblings and he wouldn't care. "You're not supposed to be here. You promised not to come back here, remember?"
"I don't think I ever promised anything." She retorted before sighing. "Look, I know that you're private about your family and I get that but it's not every day they're all in town and I want to get to know them better, you know? I want them to like me."
"It doesn't matter if they like you or not." Diego glared at her. "Why can't you just go back to work and I'll pick you up later like we agreed?"
Kate rattled the box of donuts with a smile. "I can't waste perfectly good donuts."
Knowing that he wasn't going to win this argument, Diego stormed away from her and decided to take some time to himself downstairs, in his childhood bedroom. Leaving Kate in the building on her own, meant that she had to try and remember where everything was as there were hundreds of doors that led to different corridors and she wasn't completely sure where she was heading. She was just hoping to bump into a sibling that would be nice enough to show her to a room and try some of the donuts that she had brought with her. As she was searching the upper floors for someone that could help her find a place to go, she had no idea that two more uninvited guests had just stepped into the academy.
They had masks on, holding large guns and stealthily made their way through the bottom floors of the building, finding Diego first and began shooting at him. Going straight into battle mode, Diego flung knives towards them but they ricocheted off the masks and ended up falling to the floor without any impact. Realising that his only weapon of defence against the gunmen were useless, he had to turn to his backup plan which was running; and the worst part about being attacked in his own home was that he knew Kate was here somewhere. But because of their argument, he had left her alone and she could be dead, she could have been shot and it would be his fault.
Kate heard the gunshot from the floor above and knew that something was wrong, she also knew that Diego could be in trouble and that made her panic. Even though they had just argued, didn't mean that she was fine with him being shot or being hurt; she needed to find him and she needed to help him. That was as far as planning went, she had no idea what she would do when she tracked the gunmen down but all she could hope was that an idea came to her before they shot her. As she runs down the stairs, box of donuts still in her hand, she hears scuffling coming from the Parlour and runs inside to see that Allison was being attacked by a gunman wearing a bear mask. He didn't seem to have his gun, which meant that it was a fair fight and Kate could work with the gunman being unarmed, this was one of the reasons that Diego had agreed to train her, so that she would know what to do when being attacked. Although the first rule is to never join the fight, she couldn't just sit back and let Allison get hurt, she had to help.
As soon as Allison is flung onto the floor, Kate joins the fight and is taken aback with how agile this gunman seems; taking notes that he knows how to defend himself without a gun and probably being some kind of trained assassin. Using the donut box to hit him over the head didn't seem to do anything because of his mask. But she didn't let that worry her, continuing to dodge his attacks and land some punches every so often but then he seemed to be one step ahead of her and managed to grab her throat. She tried to get out of his grip, clawing at his hand which was tightening around her neck and even tried to kick his groin so that he would let her go but he was skilled and knew exactly how to keep her choked mid-air. What he wasn't expecting was for her boyfriend to appear, jumping onto his back and trying to choke the gunman in the Bear mask. "Let her go!" Nothing seemed to be working until Luther joined the fight, matching the gunman in figure and managing to throw him to the other side of the room. Diego helped Kate up and held her face between his hands as he tried to check for any injuries that she may have had; Luther helped Allison up as they tried to figure out a plan of attacking these trained assassins.
Allison got her breath back, leaning on her knees. "Who the hell are these guys?"
"You're welcome." Luther ignored her and gestured to his brother, smirking at saving the day. Diego rolled his eyes, letting go of Kate to look at his brother. "I was doing fine."
"Oh yeah, you really had them-"
"Ever hear of rope-a-dope?"
"Not the time boys!" Kate snapped as more shots were fired towards them and they all ducked down; Luther pushed them towards cover. "Get out of here!" Diego and Allison run downstairs to deal with the gunman in a dog mask, Kate notices that somehow Vanya has stumbled onto the scene and has no idea what's going on, so she grabs her. "Vanya! Stay behind me." The gunman in the bear mask walks straight past them as they stand as close to the wall as possible and keep their mouths closed; glad that they were good at hiding so he didn't see them. Then they hear the chandelier crashing to the floor and stop in their tracks when they see Luther, covered in dark wiry hair under his clothes; when seeing his siblings around him, he runs away but they had already seen everything. "Holy shit."
Everyone stands in silence as they take in what had just happened but then they hear a soft humming from above them and realise that Grace had been here the whole time. "Shit, mom." Diego said, panicking before turning to his girlfriend. "Are you okay...?"
Kate bared a smile at him, as she leant on the wall for support because her bones were aching from the fight but was glad that he was checking up on her before running off. "I'll be fine."
a/n: i hate online learning, only two people show up & the tutor always picks on me 😭 -lizzie ⭐️
date published: 18/11/21