And Only Surrender Will Help You Now

Because I have other things to fill my time
You take what is yours and I'll take mine
Now let me at the truth
Which will refresh my broken mind

~ Mumford and Sons
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Kate woke to the sound of her phone ringing, the shrill sound cutting through the silence of the morning. Quickly she scrambled out of the covers and almost fell on her face over Brian's legs on her way towards her purse.

"Shut it up." He growled and turned onto his stomach, burying his face in his one pillow. Upon finding the source of the noise Kate slid her finger over the screen and lifted the phone to her ear.

"Hello?"

Brian kicked the back of her leg in an attempt to get her out of the room, Kate took the hint and rolled her eyes as she stepped over his legs again and went out the door. Not wanting to wake up anyone else, though she didn't care about waking Brian, she stuck her feet into the closest pair of shoes she could find and wrapped a jacket around her pyjama clad form before walking out to the backyard.

Back in the bedroom Brian groaned into the pillow, knowing he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. Slowly he stood up, stretching his back and removing the kinks that came with sleeping on the floor for an entire night. When he went to pull a shirt over his head, Brian looked out the window and caught sight of Kate walking back and forth in the backyard, gesturing with her hands as she spoke into the phone with a frown on her face.

Arriving downstairs he found his mother and oldest sister staring out the window at the redhead. When Judy heard him she turned to face her son, a cup of steaming coffee in her hands.

"Maybe you should go out there, Brian."

"Why?"

Now Jennifer turned to face him as well. "'Why?' She seems upset and she is your fiancée. Go out there and find out if everything's allright." And the two women continued to stare at him until Brian rolled his eyes and put on his sneakers before exiting the house.

Kate had just hung up the phone when she was joined by him, a scowl still on her face.

"What was that about?"

"It seems as if nothing is able to go smoothly if I'm not there. That was one of my colleagues who called me about the fax machine being broken," she started gesturing with her hands again. "Why the hell are they calling me? I'm not some kind of fucking mechanic! How am I supposed to fix the damned thing?"

As Kate ranted Brian looked over at the window where his mother and sister were still standing, and then put an arm around Kate's shoulders to pull her into a hug.

"What are you doing?" She glared at him and put her hands against his chest to stop him.

"You're making them think we're fighting." Was all he said before giving her a tug and bringing her against him, keeping her there with his arms locked around her much smaller frame. Brian then proceeded to rub her back to make it seem as if he were comforting her.

Kate could only stand there, her arms pressed between Brian and herself, waiting for when he would release her. When he did, Kate gave him an unamused stare and then turned to walk back inside the house. She didn't even look back as she said: "Eyes off ass. Off ass."

Once she entered the kitchen after removing her jacket and borrowed shoes, Kate found Judy and Jennifer there, looking a little too unaware of what the redhead had been doing outside. Deciding not to mind that, Kate gave them a smile.

"Good morning. I hope my phone didn't wake you up earlier."

Judy smiled back while handing her a cup of coffee. "Don't worry about it, sweetie. Was it work?" She asked and got her confirmation as Kate rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Yeah, but it's no big deal. It was pretty much an unnecessary call anyway."

When Brian came back inside Judy and Jennifer were discussing what to do for a girls day while Kate was listening, though her eyes were simply staring at the floor in front of her. Seeing this, Brian quickly grabbed her coffee and drank about half of it before handing it back to Kate, who'd been struggling to get it back.

"Asshole." She muttered quietly enough so that none of the Boyle women could hear her. Brian grinned and repeated her line from the previous night. "I heard that."
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In the end it was decided that Kate, Judy and all of Brian's sisters would be going to have a full day at the spa, all payed for by Brian after he insisted. This would give the women a chance to get to know Kate better and maybe interrogate her a little as well.

Since the seven women made quite the group, they split up in two and agreed that Kate would change group after half the time had past. Or more like, Judy and her daughters agreed to that, while Kate went along with them. For the first two hours Kate joined Gabrielle, Catherine, and Julie Ann.

"So, Kate. How long have you known Brian?" Catherine asked the first question while they were laying in mudbaths.

"Uhm, since around 2009. I'd just started working with the Rangers when he joined the team."

"What do you work with?"

"I'm a member of the Rangers' Event Presentation team."

Catherine nodded and Gabrielle took over. "How long have you and Brian been a couple?"

Think fast, think fast. "Not for very long, about eight months. I know it seems like no time at all," she continued before Gabrielle interrupted, "but it just felt... right, you know. I can't really explain it. We just clicked, I guess."

Since no one asked another question Kate closed her eyes and leaned back, completely missing the look and smile the three sisters shared.
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There wasn't anymore interrogating after that, so it seemed as if the Boyle women had gotten the answers they were looking for. Probably wanted to make sure I'm not some gold digging whore, Kate thought while in the car on their way back to the house. Artie Sr. was watching some football game in the living room when they came through the door.

"Where's Brian?" Judy questioned her husband and her two youngest sons who had joined their father.

"He said he went out on a run." He answered, not tearing his eyes away from the TV screen and yelling when something happened in the game.

"I'm going upstairs to take a shower. Wash of the extra massage oil, you know." Kate excused herself and walked up the stairs. The cause of the shower obviously wasn't because of excess body oil, but instead it was to think about how she explained her and Brian's relationship to his sisters.

So she stood in the shower for almost an hour but never really succeeded with clearing her thoughts. Stepping out in the cool air, Kate wiped her hand over the mirror to clean away some of the steam and then turned to the towel rack. Which was empty. Of course.

"You have got to be kidding me." Was muttered over and over again as Kate searched the bathroom for something to dry herself off with, but had to admit that there was nothing of use to be found. Sighing, Kate tossed her now straight, wet, dark red hair over her shoulder and started mentally preparing herself for walking out of a bathroom in a house that wasn't her own while butt-naked.

"I can do this. It's not like someone's out there anyway. And it's not like I have to go through a hallway that everyone walks through." Another sigh. Then a deep breath and Kate half-walks, half-runs out of the bathroom and straight into a warm, brick wall. The next thing she feels is the impact from the floor on her back and that same brick wall falling on top of her. Opening her eyes that were previously screwed shut, Kate stares straight into the dark eyes of Brian.

"Oh my God!"

Both exclaim the words at the same time and scrambles to get away from eachother, Kate covering herself with the cover on the bed while Brian grabs one of the blankets that were still laying on the floor.

"What are you doing?!"

"Why are you naked?!"

"Oh my God!"

"I was going to take a fucking shower!"

"I was taking a fucking shower but there weren't any towels in the damn bathroom!"

Before they could start screaming at eachother again, Kate pointed towards the bathroom. "Just go."

With the blanket still wrapped around his waist, Brian stood up and walked into the bathroom, keeping his gaze straight ahead. Once the door closed behind him and Kate heard the shower start, she let out a huge breath. "I can't believe that just happened."