One Day at a Time -- Desperate Housewives
One Day at a Time
Chapter Two
Fandom: Desperate Housewives
Pairing: Bree/Katherine
Rating: PG so far, though that may change
Format: Chaptered
Summary: Katherine moves in with Bree to help her quit drinking, and learns there are a few things she herself could use help with as well.
Note: Work-in-progress.
Katherine's new room smells vaguely of the old potpourri sachet in one of the drawers, and the mint-green sheets are crisp and newly laundered. Still, the whole room, despite its impeccable tidiness, has a sterile air that reminds Katherine of a hotel room, or maybe a suite in a reasonably posh nursing home. She straightens a framed high-school photo of Dylan on the bedside table; then tucks a picture of two-year-old Dylan into a drawer; then takes it out of the drawer and sets it upright next to the other Dylan; then winces and sweeps them both into the drawer. Dylan's in college now. She's in therapy and has stopped calling her mother very much. Katherine doesn't really want to know what Dylan is saying about her to her therapist, but she can imagine it anyway, and can imagine just as easily all the reasons why Dylan doesn't call anymore. Maybe she'll find her way back someday. But for now, Katherine keeps the drawer closed.
The pretext Katherine has given to her neighbors for why she has moved in with Bree is that she is renovating and redecorating her home after the mess that went down with Wayne last year, in order to try to expunge some of the memories and make a clean break with the past. In fact she is having her house renovated, and she supposes it would be nice if it helped to get rid of some of the memories, but she doesn't think it will. She's been carrying those memories around with her for fifteen years -- in the barely perceptible crook of her nose in the mirror, remnant of a broken nose and cheekbone courtesy of Wayne; in the embarrassingly exaggerated startle reflex she can't suppress when someone approaches her from behind; in the photos of a girl who doesn't have Katherine's eyes or Wayne's jawline. In the stones arranged to form a small cross at a certain spot in the woods. No, a new kitchen counter isn't going to help much.
Bree needs help and Katherine is here for her. But what Katherine will never admit is that right now she needs help only slightly less than Bree does, and although she can't ask for it, she can piggyback a little off what she herself is giving to Bree. She can sleep two doors down from a woman whose proficiency with a variety of firearms exceeds even Katherine's own, and she can spend her days using the only coping mechanism (besides cooking) that she's got, which is protecting and caring for someone else. Since Dylan left Katherine's had no one to worry about but herself, and the panic attacks she has been having as a result are not to her taste at all. Katherine has come to care deeply about Bree, in no small part because they share so many of the same demons and have developed the same defenses against them. But at the moment, Bree's defenses are shattered, and she is in danger of crumpling completely. And while Katherine tends to have some difficulty learning to fight through the rough patches on her own behalf, doing it for someone else is something else again. In the end, Katherine needs Bree precisely because Bree needs her.
Chapter One (previous chapter)
Chapter Three (next chapter)
Chapter Four
Chapter Two
Fandom: Desperate Housewives
Pairing: Bree/Katherine
Rating: PG so far, though that may change
Format: Chaptered
Summary: Katherine moves in with Bree to help her quit drinking, and learns there are a few things she herself could use help with as well.
Note: Work-in-progress.
Katherine's new room smells vaguely of the old potpourri sachet in one of the drawers, and the mint-green sheets are crisp and newly laundered. Still, the whole room, despite its impeccable tidiness, has a sterile air that reminds Katherine of a hotel room, or maybe a suite in a reasonably posh nursing home. She straightens a framed high-school photo of Dylan on the bedside table; then tucks a picture of two-year-old Dylan into a drawer; then takes it out of the drawer and sets it upright next to the other Dylan; then winces and sweeps them both into the drawer. Dylan's in college now. She's in therapy and has stopped calling her mother very much. Katherine doesn't really want to know what Dylan is saying about her to her therapist, but she can imagine it anyway, and can imagine just as easily all the reasons why Dylan doesn't call anymore. Maybe she'll find her way back someday. But for now, Katherine keeps the drawer closed.
The pretext Katherine has given to her neighbors for why she has moved in with Bree is that she is renovating and redecorating her home after the mess that went down with Wayne last year, in order to try to expunge some of the memories and make a clean break with the past. In fact she is having her house renovated, and she supposes it would be nice if it helped to get rid of some of the memories, but she doesn't think it will. She's been carrying those memories around with her for fifteen years -- in the barely perceptible crook of her nose in the mirror, remnant of a broken nose and cheekbone courtesy of Wayne; in the embarrassingly exaggerated startle reflex she can't suppress when someone approaches her from behind; in the photos of a girl who doesn't have Katherine's eyes or Wayne's jawline. In the stones arranged to form a small cross at a certain spot in the woods. No, a new kitchen counter isn't going to help much.
Bree needs help and Katherine is here for her. But what Katherine will never admit is that right now she needs help only slightly less than Bree does, and although she can't ask for it, she can piggyback a little off what she herself is giving to Bree. She can sleep two doors down from a woman whose proficiency with a variety of firearms exceeds even Katherine's own, and she can spend her days using the only coping mechanism (besides cooking) that she's got, which is protecting and caring for someone else. Since Dylan left Katherine's had no one to worry about but herself, and the panic attacks she has been having as a result are not to her taste at all. Katherine has come to care deeply about Bree, in no small part because they share so many of the same demons and have developed the same defenses against them. But at the moment, Bree's defenses are shattered, and she is in danger of crumpling completely. And while Katherine tends to have some difficulty learning to fight through the rough patches on her own behalf, doing it for someone else is something else again. In the end, Katherine needs Bree precisely because Bree needs her.
Chapter One (previous chapter)
Chapter Three (next chapter)
Chapter Four