Title: Erase/Rewind
Rating: PG
Summary: If confronted with ugly truths about herself, Kate’s reaction will always be to cut and to run.
Disclaimer: I do not own Lost. At all. I wish but alas...
Author's Note: For thespiansparkle. Used for philosophy_20, prompt #6: theory.



She picked this icon for me to base a ficlet/drabble on:

And here it is:

When Kate is pushed to her wits-end, when she is at an emotional peak and cannot say the road back to where she had begun, she sits very still until she calms down, until her strength (and her sanity) return to her and she can move ahead once more.

Then and only then can she become level-headed once more. Then and only then can she see react out of anything but pure emotion.

And when she is interrupted, she attacks. Like a dog, backed into a corner, she lashes out and says things that, in the future, she will wish she could take back. She says everything that has been lurking in the deepest recesses of her mind. She takes out her every insecurity on people who have done nothing to earn it.

She had done it to Tom, when he had asked her questions about the fire. She had done it to Sawyer, when he had confronted her about trying to take his place on the raft. And she had done it to Jack when he had come to her and asked why she had left the hatch.

She had snapped, then, unloaded everything – every grievance, every insecurity – and set them right on Jack’s shoulders. Something he had done nothing to earn. If confronted with ugly truths about herself, Kate’s reaction will always be to cut and to run. It’s the only way she knows to protect herself from herself. She hasn’t grown, she can’t change. And it’s the only way she knows to get by.