Los Angeles, Fandom's Reality, Thursday Afternoon

Kathy and Anders (and Ronin!) had arrived in the Los Angeles early Tuesday afternoon and had spent the last two days just being the most stereotypical tourists the city could ask for. There had been tours around Hollywood in double-decker buses (including a fifteen minute span where Kathy white-knuckled Anders' hand as they drove past Paramount Studios), taking pictures of various stars of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and visited the Korean Bell of Friendship. Everywhere they went, they were surrounded by throngs of people: other tourists, native Angelenos just trying to go about their day, students, even the occasional celebrity. It did Kathy's heart good to see so many people walking the streets, doing their own thing, just living their lives.

But the nightmares were still there. By morning on Thursday, she was reluctantly admitting that, maybe just sticking to tourist spots probably wasn't going to cut it. She wasn't attached to any of these places, not emotionally. They hadn't been her beats, hadn't been where she'd seen the worst of it.

So today, they'd gone to Griffith's Observatory. It had been one of Kathy's favorite places even before Fandom. It had been where Anders had surprised her with prom.

( ...It had been where she'd spent several weeks in the planetarium tied to a chair, entranced by the projection of the universe, as an ex. )

The opening strains of music swelled from the speakers and a star shot across the screen above them. And Kathy pushed herself to her feet and darted out the door.

[For that guy!]