Fated Dinner Part 1:

Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

It was a brutal 20 hours later that Katherine finally got back home. There was nothing that could've prepared her for that day. It was, without a doubt, the single most stressful and painful day in her life. She lay on bed, so damn tired that she completely forgot that Tom would've already been in it.

"Damn," he hissed as she landed on him. "Hey babe."

"Sorry," she said, trying to sound as caring as she could while already starting to drift asleep. "I'm just so damn tired."

"It's ok," he said, yawning. "Anything you need?"

"Just sleep," she said, throwing the comforter over herself.

"Alright," he said. "I'll leave you some food in the morning. Band's got a gig in Springfield, so I'll be gone for a couple days."

This wasn't really that odd. Tom's band was constantly finding small-time gigs all over the place. So, he regularly disappeared for a few days at a time, but he always warned her and always called when he could, so she'd made peace with it.

She didn't verbally respond, only relaxed her breathing and fell into the world of dreams. Sadly, there she found no reprieve. She had what must've been a dozen nightmares. Between patients and the overwhelming amount of paperwork she had to fill out, an 80-hour week seemed entirely too short an amount of time to get all her work done.

When she woke from a nightmare for the fourth time, she felt tears on her cheeks, and hugged her knees.

"What am I doing?" she asked herself quietly. "Why did I think I could do this?"

In what felt like only a few minutes, her cell phone went off and she groaned, starting her second day as an intern. Despite the French Toast Tom had left her, Katherine found she couldn't eat a bite, and ended up throwing up right before she left for work.

Her second shift was just as brutal as the first, if not moreso. She still couldn't muster the strength to eat anything, despite knowing how dangerous it was to push yourself on an empty stomach. More than once, she considered going to the hospital's counselor, but always pushed the idea away. It was only her second day. They couldn't break her that easy.

However, as she lay upon the poor excuse for a bed in the on-call room, she let tears fall softly onto the pillow. There, in the dark, where no one else could see, she let herself be venerable, and cried.

By the grace of God, she had the following day off. Unfortunately, Tom was already out of town. She would've loved nothing more than to be held by him, and to complain to a sympathetic ear. She'd called him twice, but only gotten his voicemail. Katherine forced herself to remain calm.

It wasn't his fault his job took him away at this time. He just wasn't as open as she was, and they'd agreed to respect each other's differences. So instead of being comforted by her loving boyfriend, she spent the day curled up with her cat on the couch, watching far too many episodes of CSI.

She even managed to get down a little bit of food, although it made her feel sick. Despite trying to relax and free her mind from her worries, she constantly felt like she'd made yet another mistake in her life, and she didn't know how to turn away from this one. It wasn't like she could just turn away from the quarter-million dollar debt it took her to get this far, and she wasn't exactly making big money yet.

For the hundredth time in three days, she forced herself to remember why she was in this field. She could be able to help people. She would be a major difference in their lives. She could do this. She had to.

Her cat, Trip, meowed insistently as a demand to be pet. Katherine sighed, scratching the animal gently behind the ear and hearing him purr content.

"How nice it must be for you, huh?" she asked him. "All you need is food and pets and you're happy."

Trip didn't respond, and she kept petting, trying to keep her emotions all under control. After all, this was part of being a doctor, right? That thought kept her from freaking out completely, though it didn't help her loneliness. How desperately she wished Tom were with her.

"It's ok," she said to herself. "It's not his fault."

Despite logically knowing this, she snapped up her phone angrily dialing his number again. Again, it went to voicemail and now she frowned. She loved Tom, truly. She knew that they loved each other, and honestly she planned on getting married to him once she was a little more settled into her job, but when he left her alone like this… Well, it was hard not to feel like he was ignoring her.

The days started to move on, each day at the hospital feeling more stressful than the last. She knew better, that it was just in her head, and that she was actually making decent progress.

She'd started to understand more intricately how the body worked and how to treat patients and she wasn't getting corrected as often anymore, but it was wearing on her. She still wasn't eating well and had barely been sleeping. Day after day it got worse until she ended up throwing up anytime she ate, and began taking supplements in order to keep her body going.

To make matters worse, she still hadn't heard back from Tom, and this had moved from irritating to worrying. He should be getting back later on that day, but the fact that he had yet to even call and talk to her concerned Katherine greatly. Tom had taken a day off from talking to anyone before, but he'd always forewarned her. However, she didn't want to repeat her mistake of forcing him to talk, so she'd give him his space. Besides, he'd be home that night, and everything would be alright.

When she got home, Katherine drew herself a warm bath, and relaxed, feeling the truly horrifying first week of internship wash off of her. She'd made it, and that was something she wasn't fully sure she'd be able to do. Granted there was still a full 51 weeks to go before she was even a resident, but she was on her way.

She congratulated herself with a drive-thru order of chicken strips, pleased that she was able to keep a fair bit of the meal down. She'd lost seven pounds, and considering it was in a single week, that was a little worrying, but she'd vowed to try and eat at least once a day from now on.

That evening, as she lay herself down to sleep, Katherine smiled. And for the first time in what felt like years, she slept straight through the night. Once more, her cell phone blared at her, demanding that she wake up. For the first time in a week, she actually had to wake from being truly comfortable in bed.

She shook herself and got dressed in a fresh pair of scrubs, still slightly frustrated with the lack of appeal of the green clothing upon her body. However, she put the thought out of her head. She had a list of one million things to worry about at work today and her appearance had no place upon said list.

Katherine poured herself a bowl of cereal before giving Trip fresh food and water. The little furball meowed excited at the prospect of more food. She smiled and stroked him twice before turning to her own breakfast. Twenty minutes later, she head out the door, attaching the damn beeper to her left hip.

All along her morning drive, she smiled, singing along with the radio, be it horribly off-key. It wasn't until she was locking her car door in the parking lot before a thought hit her. Tom had never made it home last night.