The ride over is quiet as nothing but the radio's music breaks the silence. The napkin I'm holding against my head crinkles as bricked buildings flit past and we head deep into the downtown area. The streets here are lined with parked cars and the sidewalks are filled with early, not quite springtime tourism.

At last, we roll up to one of the buildings and Diana puts her car into park. She shuts it off and gets out without a word. I glance over to see that we're parked in front of a bookstore.

"It's this way," she calls to me as I get out, "my apartment is upstairs."

I follow her as she heads for a small, black door and opens it as she ushers me inside. A tiny wooden staircase made up of worn-out, varnished boards lead up to the second floor where she pulls out a set of keys and unlocks a door that's at the top. She pushes the door open and I'm surprised to see that her cheetah familiar, Flora, is waiting expectantly on the other side.

The cheetah lets out a happy trilling noise, her dark eyes gleaming like polished copper as she turns and trots away. Diana shuts the door behind us as I look around the small, wood floored apartment. A leather couch sits in an open living room, which Flora hops onto as Diana yells at her.

"Flora, you know you're not allowed on the furniture, your claws scratch up the leather, get off the couch," she chides. 

The familiar's ears press flat against her head before she gets down.

A glance around the apartment reveals that the living room has a couch, a coffee table and a small TV. A kitchen is tucked into a corner right next to the door. The only thing that is colorful are the paintings that are hung up on the walls. There's a portrait of a cheetah among them and the style reminds me of a Van Gogh painting with the way the colors swirl together.

"Did you paint these?" I wonder aloud and she nods.

"Sometimes I have...trouble sleeping after difficult calls, painting helps me cope," Diana admits absently. "It gives me something else to focus on."

A brown, tabby cat suddenly hobbles over to me and rubs against my leg and I absently reach down to pet it. A purr rumbles in its throat as it blinks up at me and I realize that it only has three legs. Behind me, Diana sets her keys on the counter and hangs her coat on the hook by the door.

"Do you want anything to drink or eat?" she asks.

Her voice trails off as she walks into the nearby kitchen to open a pantry.

"I have...uh...some, I have oyster crackers, never mind, I'll check out Eden's stash downstairs, she likes to make cookies, do you want any?"

"Not right now, thank you," I mutter as I adjust the napkin I'm still holding to my head.

"Okay, the bathroom's over this way."

She lets the door to the pantry fall shut, relief crossing her face as she leads me down a short hallway. She opens another wooden door, the hinges creaking as she turns away.

"Just hang in here for a sec, I'm going to grab a barstool."

I nod as I turn on the lights for the bathroom, only to be nearly blinded as I am bombarded by the harsh lighting. The vanity and counter are both white, along with the walls and tile floor as I squint against it. A hand towel, which is a bright shade of purple, looks out of place in the midst of the blandness.

Diana returns with a barstool and a small, pale container no bigger than a jelly jar. I sit down on the stool as she opens a drawer on the vanity and pulls out a set of scissors. She sets a waste basket on the floor before she pulls my hair back and eyes it uneasily. Her face is almost comical in the reflection of the mirror over the vanity.

I carefully peel away the napkin and toss it into the bin. She takes a couple cotton balls out then and dampens them with rubber alcohol. She pulls on a set of latex gloves before she gently swabs at the wounds on my head. I wince at her touch, even though I can see that she's trying her best to be as careful as she could be. She finishes and tosses the cotton balls into the trash before she grabs the scissors. 

"So...what happened?" she inquires as she gingerly starts to snip away at my hair.

"Where do you want me to start?" I ask in a sharper voice than I intend to use.

I wince as I watch her reaction in the mirror.

I couldn't help it.

"No one believes me," I tell her honestly.

"Please don't put me through this," she murmurs and rolls her eyes after a couple of minutes of silently trimming.

I sigh at this and absently bite at my lip, "Why do you care?"

"Because you just...you remind me of my sister," she says as her voice trails off to just above a whisper.

I look up in the mirror to see that she's staring blankly at the back of my head, her eyes glassy.

"Did something happen to her?" I dare to ask.

She shakes her head at this, her focus turning to my hair as she snips away at it. I didn't pin her as someone who was good with hair, but somehow, I can see her shaping my hair into something much more desirable than its current status.

At last, she stops trimming. She opens the jar then and with careful gloved fingers, she begins to apply some of the salve onto my head. The salve stings at first before it cools as my scalp begins to tingle. 

"There was an accident, a drunk driver hit us on the passenger's side where Beth was, I had let her ride in the front that day," her eyes are unfocused as I turn around on the barstool to face her. "My mother was knocked unconscious and Beth...I had just turned sixteen so I didn't know any spells to save her and she wasn't old enough to be able to use magic yet."

Her gaze hardens as she sets her jaw and shakes her head.

"The driver was able to walk away and he served a light sentence, got off for good behavior and then was found guilty of beating his girlfriend after he had gotten out," she says at last as she looks me in the eye, "Beth was fourteen, she'd be twenty-five if she had lived...if."

I think of Indigo then and how lost I would be without her as tears start to well up and a lump forms in my throat.

"She's the reason why I joined the force," Diana adds, "so I can keep people off the streets when they decide they want to be selfish and put others at risk."

She turns away but I get up at the last second as I reach out to embrace her.

"I'm sorry," I rasp as my emotions get the better of me, "I can't imagine what it would be like...I wouldn't know what to do if I didn't have Indigo or Connor."

For a long moment, she doesn't move or say anything and I feel painfully awkward. At last, I feel the sudden, light pressure of her arms reaching down to wrap around me. We stay this way for a brief second before she lets go and looks the other way. But not before I can see her reach up toward her face like she's brushing away a tear.

"I just don't want you to get hurt, Beth was all I had," she admits.

A sudden, loud scratching noise starts at the door and we startle at the intrusion. I hastily wipe the tears from my eyes.

She yanks the door open to reveal that Flora is sitting on the other side, the cat crouched next to her. Flora makes a chirping noise as she glowers at us with amber eyes, her ears pressing flat. She stands and stubbornly shoves her way into the bathroom.

"Flora, get out," Diana protests as she walks out of the bathroom and makes a shooing motion.

Flora glares at her as her tail tip twitches irritably before she trots past her, her claws clicking on the wood in the hallway as she leaves.

"You too, Yardstick," Diana says as she puts her hands on her hips and looks down at the cat.

The cat meows in protest before it hobbles down the hallway after Flora. I pick up the barstool to follow Diana back out into the kitchen.

"Yardstick?" I ask as I set the barstool down.

"She only has three feet," she replies nonchalantly. "I just want you to promise me that you'll be honest," Diana begins to say as she walks over to the counter and leans against it. "I don't think that you're crazy."

"If I told you everything-," I begin to protest, but she holds up a hand.

"Try me," she replies with a lopsided smile.

****

The apartment is silent when I finally finish telling her everything, minus Finn appearing as a ghost to me. I pause, waiting for her to say something, anything.

At last, she sits up and smoothes at her pant legs. Flora had long since fallen asleep and is curled up on the couch next to her. The story must have distracted Diana enough to forget her rules for the cheetah.

Bastet is laid obediently across my feet on the floor, her soft breathing grounding me. 

"It's...it's not the most bizarre story I've heard," Diana begins hesitantly.

Her eyes fall toward my hand as she says this and I realize that I haven't pulled my sleeve over the scar that is still on my hand from punching the mirror. Her eyes narrow suspiciously and I pretend not to notice her stare. I quickly try to turn the conversation away from my hand.

"It's just...I'm afraid that I'm always going to be in danger, and with Corrina being an Unfamiliar and that bracelet sensing that someone had cast magic on me..."

"We'll get to the bottom of it together, somehow, someway there's something bigger at work," she frowns as she reaches up to run a hand through her hair. "But who could be helping Luke?"

I shake my head at this and shrug helplessly and reach down to pet Bastet. The panther looks up at my touch, her wide eyes blinking softly before she lays her head back down. 

"I'm not sure, but if there are more people like Clayton, more who wish to hurt Unfamiliars, it might not be out of the question that one of them could have reached out to Luke."

She nods thoughtfully, "I'll look into his visitation records since he first got locked up."

"Thank you," I tell her, "I'm sorry that I've been such a mess, I just...I didn't know how to tell you what all has been going on."

"Kara, it's okay," she tells me patiently. "You've been through a lot."

"Thank you," I say in a low voice as I slouch.

"It's no problem," she says as she leans forward to squeeze my shoulder, "we'll figure this out, I promise, I'm here for you."

****AN: Unforgettable will be going on a brief Hiatus and will return on 1/1/25 for regular updates!!****