Hearing someone coming downstairs quietly, she sat up carefully, making sure not to wake John in the process. Judging by how deep a sleep he was, he clearly needed the sleep in Kay's mind. She pulled on her leggings as she stood up and walked into the kitchen to see Sam making a fresh batch of coffee. "morning" Kay yawned, "morning" Sam replied with a smile, "want any breakfast or anything?" Sam asked, but Kay shook her head, "I'll wait a little bit until the others are awake" Kay told her.

Sam nodded, thinking deep down Kay really hasn't changed all that much in that regard. "do you really have to go today?" Sam asked, pausing what she was doing. Kay sighed and nodded, hugging her sister. "I do. I can't leave John and Serena to deal with this whole thing alone and I can't risk dragging you and Lara into our world either. It wouldn't be right or fair and I wouldn't live with myself if you got hurt. But I will stay in contact better. I love you Sam, never forget that" she explained as she felt Sam hug her tighter.

(Sorry I thought I hit send with this one.)

Serena sat up and groaned, moving to her feet and slowly got out the bed and grabbed her stuff before heading downstairs. She walked into the kitchen and smiled weakly. “Morning girls…how did last night go?”

(no worries)

Kay and Sam looked up and smiled when they hesrd Serena come into the kitchen. "morning! How you feeling this morning?" Sam asked her, her cheery tone showing just how different her and Kay were as morning people. "last night was fine, we ate, we chatted... Sam being more than willing to tell John all my embrassing childhood moments" Kay explained, smiling sleepily, sipping her coffee.

"it's in the code of conduct for sisters Kay, you shared your own to Lara" Sam countered before looking back at Serena. "you must be hungry, here sit at the counter and ill get you breakfast" She said, being her usual accommodating self.

Serena smiled and moved to sit down, flinching a little as she did. “Sounds good. Is John still asleep?” She looked better then she did the night before, just sore and tired. Her shadows were gathering around out of sight of Lara but helping her when she wasn’t looking.

John turned in his sleep, his dreamless sleep slowly turning into a nightmare.

Sam smiled and started making pancakes for everyone, "yeah, decided I'd leave him to sleep as long as he needed instead of waking him up" Kay replied to Serena. She noted how Serena was looking better than she did the day before and it put Kay at ease a lot for seeing her looking better.

"if he doesn't wake up soon, he'll no doubt wake up to the smell of fresh pancakes" Sam chimed in with a chuckle. "Serena, help yourself to fresh coffee or tea or if you'd rather we have different juices in the fridge" Sam told her.

Serena nodded and said “I bet he worked himself into a stress spin with all that happened…tea sounds great I’ll make some” she started to get up again but paused. She frowned at her shadow by the door. It was pointing into the living room and Serena tapped Kay and nodded to it.

John was shaking in a cold sweat, the blankets thrown off now as he muttered in his sleep.

Kay nodded, fully agreeing with her in a few ways, "wouldn't surprise me. He felt guilty for having me deal with everything and not being able to help" she replied, whilst Sam and Serena discussed drinks for the morning. At Serena pausing, and her being tapped on the shoulder, she looked at Serena before glancing where she being gestured toward.

Getting off the bar stool, she headed straight into the living room and saw what a worked up state John had got himself into in his sleep. Walking over, she sat on the edge of the sofa bed on his side and placed her hand on his arm, then his head, sweeping his hair off his forehead. "heyy.. Shhh... Its okay John, I'm here" she cooed, moving her hand down and stroking his cheek. "I'm here, it's okay..." she kept saying.

Serena watched her slip out and saw the look Sam had. “I have my shadows on alert at all times. John must have been in need to trigger them” she sighed and rubbed her face. “That was a mess…thanks for your help with it all Sam”

John shot up when she touched him, breathing hard. He cursed softly and held his face. “Sorry…did I wake you?”

Sam listened to Serena's explanation, even though she felt like the woman didn't have to feel like she had to explain herself to her. "it's okay, no need to explain yourself to me. I actually think it's pretty amazing" she told Serena with a smile as she plated up some pancakes and put them on the counter in front of her. "help yourself to anything you want on them" she smiled.

Kay gave him space when he shot up like a bat out of hell as he woke up before putting a comforting hand on him. "no, I woke up a few minutes ago, been in the kitchen with Sam and Serena. You okay?" she replied to him, concern in her voice.

Serena smiled and nodded, the shadows moving to gather all the toppings that could go. “Sorry, they want to help…and I’m better if I don’t move too much”

John nodded and rubbed his face. “Ya…when I’m worked up all night I get nightmares of past mistakes…I didn’t mean to worry you…”

Sam smiled and nodded once again, "it's okay whatever makes you feel more comfortable whilst you're here" she told her. She just hoped that everything was okay in the other room with Kay and John. She was so proud of Kay just stepping up and once again, looking after someone else, instead of thinking of herself. She truly felt like she had her old sister back, the one who'd stand up for her when she'd get homophobes coming at her in bars or clubs, or if she just saw a stranger getting ribbed on and Kay would just step in without a single care for how it would effect her. She still remembered the day they had to try and hide from their parents that Kay got into a massive fight and had bruised ribs and such.

Kay brushed off his apology, "Don't be sorry. It's just who I am and I'm gonna worry about you okay? I'm fa--" she began to say 'falling in love with you' but stopped herself as it was far too soon to say such a thing and she didn't want John to run a mile so to speak from her because of it. "I'm with you and worrying comes with that." she said instead. "Come on, Sam is making pancakes for breakfast and she's got tea and coffee ready as well" she smiled at him warmly. "you're gonna be okay" she told him.

Serena smiled and bowed her head. “Thank you, for everything. You saved the day helping the way you have…So are you going to tell your girlfriend what happened?”

John smiled and said softly “I love you too Kay…more then anything else in the world”

"eh, I'm just being me. You're friends of Kay and you've done more for me by bringing her here so I know she's alive, than I've ever done for you guys" Sam replied to Serena, "but as for your other question, probably not. Lara won't handle it. So for the time being it's not worth telling her. Especially as I'm still processing everything Kay is in particular myself" she added in explanation.

When John said the big L word before she did, it took her by surprise and made her freeze in her spot in front of him for a split second. She never thought in a million years he'd be the kind of man to openly say those to another person. When the words properly processed in her mind, she smiled and instantly kissed him, letting it linger for a few seconds before pulling away. "so...fancy some of Sam's amazing pancakes?" she asked smiling broadly, a smile that eminated in her eyes.

Serena nodded and said “that makes sense…this life isn’t for everyone…heck it’s a nightmare even if you can make it in this world of the dark and strange…but we make it work” she took her tea as the shadows were finished making it and smiled at them. “But I would miss these guys…”

John smiled and nodded. He knew it wasn’t like him, but when he knew truth he took it. He got up slowly and pulled her up with him, heading for the kitchen.

Sam listened to Serena talk about the life her and the other two were well and truly in and nodded. She smiled as Serena said she would miss the shadows if she wasn't in the world, imagining how they could be missable. "I can imagine" she replied, piling more pancakes on a plate as Kay and John walked into the kitchen.

Kay stayed close to John when they walked into the kitchen and smiled as Sam pushed a plate of pancakes at them. "there's another plate coming, so decide between yourselves who gets that plate" Sam smirked. "I can wait, John you take it" Kay spoke as she walked over to the now brewed coffee, pouring herself a cup.

John smiled and said “thanks Sam…so is everything alright? We set to take off whenever we need to?” Serena smiled and nodded. “Yep. No rush…”

Sam nodded at John's thanks, "no problem" she replied to him as she continued on getting Kay's breakfast finished, refusing to let her sister leave before she ate something. "take all the time you guys need before heading out." she said after Serena.

When the pancakes were made, Sam handed Kay the plate to which she took gladly and grabbed a fork to start eating. "thanks Sam" she said after a mouthful, "you're welcome Kay" Sam replied. As she began eating, she realised the food was going down very well and was glad that she let her sister actually cook her something to eat.

"when you're done Kay, can you do me a favour and go out the back to take the trash out for me?" Sam eventually asked. "yeah sure, don't see why not" Kay said back between mouthfuls, and sipping her coffee.

Serena looked at her and said “I could have my shadows do it?” John looked up from his plate and said “don’t push yourself Serena. Your body went thru a get deal of stress. Don’t push yourself too much”

"it's fine Serena, I wanna do it. It's the least I can do for Sam" Kay replied after John told her not to overdo it. "and John's right, you need to not over do it" she added. She really didn't want her friend to start feeling weak and fragile again after everything she went through the day before.

Finishing her pancakes, still unable to truly take her time in eating, no matter how hard she tried telling herself she didn't need to speed eat, she stood up. "out the back you say?" she asked Sam. "yeah, it's just the one black bag in the corner there." Sam said, gesturing at the black bag by the back door.

Nodding in understanding, she instinctively gave John and Serena a pat on their shoulders to say she would be right back and walked to the bag, picking it up and opening the back door heading outside to the bins.

Serena frowned and looked at Sam then John asked as soon as Kay left “so what are you wanting to talk about with Kay out of the room?”