The silence had been filled with Katherine internally debating with herself on the matter, to settle whether to talk or just stop this immediately.  The argument tipped slightly in the favor of talking once it became clear that Sara was wanting to hear, and that she even seemed like it mattered to her if she heard.  Her eyes nearly shut as she exhaled through her nose again, summoning the courage to approach it, to mmake believe that she was not facing the fear alone then, because she wasn't facing it alone [i]here[/i].

[color=f7941d]"I was just..."[/color]

A little girl, cute as a button.

[color=f7941d]"...a child.  I didn't really understand anything, not like I do now."[/color]

At that age, who could?  But then again, she had a mind that led to this kind of intellect anf ability.  It may have been something more fundamental than the mere acquisition of knowledge...and boy it was, most definitely.

[color=f7941d]"I didn't focus on things like Titans and anything other than normal kid things, along with a bit of learning.  I didn't know what they were arguing about...  I was just trying to read in mom's work room.  Usually never an argument there, but...that time there was...and I couldn't...I didn't..."[/color]

He grip on herself tightened now, like white-knuckling at this point.  Her next words were haunted, as this was something that she was having the devil's own time coming to terms with.

[color=f7941d]"My father was a monster.  He wasn't like a person when he hit me.  He was like one of [i]them[/i].  I couldn't...I couldn't defend...I couldn't run...trapped....  He just kept beating, he...he wasn't [i]human...![/i]"[/color]

He was.  Jonathan, her father, was [i]all-too-human[/i].  He was discontent, underappreciated, belligerent while drunk, and yes...prone to violence.  This may've made him seem like a Titan to a child, causing all kinds of complexes, but he was but a man, and was ended as such.  Anyone with a high enough clearance really [i]could[/i] access the file on the Bellows Murder Case.  It featured a young Katherine Bellows beaten halfway out of her mind and-

[color=f7941d]"My mother stopped him, she...just killed him, like you would a bug.  It was just...crunch...and over.  And he just...and I...and I ran away, right into my own skull.  Couldn't handle it..."[/color]

She was actually starting to shed tears and she was about to tear the skin of her legs with her fingernails, because now that Kate had about as much as she needed to confront the image of her dad beating her half to death...she was mad at herself for retreating.  She didn't excuse herself for it.  It was too much for her, and she didn't take any solace at all that her reaction was normal to...the beating or the sight of Myra Bellows shoving a degraded pipe through a man's [i]neck[/i], snapping it instantly and sending blood all over the place.