This had to be one of the quietest days she's had in a while. She was in study mode. Everything she ever wanted was finally within her reach. She could taste it, which was probably why she was sitting on her bed giving herself her own pep talk. "You go to school forever only to be told you need a fucking license now, and your doctorate?" Even though she finally had a job in her field she was even remotely close to being done. Luckily she was knee-deep into classes for her doctorate, but she was going to do a bit of complaining along the ride. "You're going to beast that shit," she said softly to herself. She was very determined to finish everything by the time she was thirty-six. She had a plan and even losing a week out of the month wasn't going to deteriorate her from it.

She had to get out of her home. She needed to go on a run. She needed to clear the thoughts that were coming hard in her brain. The only thing she could do was get out there on the pavement and sweat. She hasn't worked out in what felt like forever and it made her sluggish. She used to pride herself on being a very athletic person, but lately with everything going on and the added stress of now going back to school while juggling a real job was too much. She needed to think. After grabbing a bottle of water she was out of the door.

It was one of those cold and rainy days in Boston, but she couldn't let that be the reason she didn't get out there. Perhaps the cold weather would help her feel anything or at the very least it'll be easy to keep her mind focused on the things she needed to sort out. The cold weather barely bothered her. She just wanted to run.

And that's what she did.

Do you know how it feels to lose a week out of your life? When you don't have any recollection of what to you? The worst feeling in the world was all of the new acquaintances she met from the fights she was a part of. There were more notes on the people she had fights with than what happened and why. She spent most of January going on what like an apology tour of some sorts. The worst was visiting her best friend, Jamie, in the hospital. There were so many wonderful people out there with broken bones and she walked away with nothing, but a few days of soreness. It didn't feel real. The worst was she didn't know if she was more relieved that she came out unscathed from the tragedy or the fact she wanted to feel everything and she couldn't. She physically couldn't feel anything or even remember why any of it happened. All she knew was she came out on the other end and walked away from it.

So she ran. She ran down one street and crossed the street to run down another one. She was really concentrating. Her thoughts were consuming everything about her right now. She couldn't feel the cold anymore. She didn't flinch when the rain fell on her face. The only thing she could do was keep up the pace she was maintaining right now. There were so many things flying in her brain at the moment, and the only thing that made her feel almost normal was running.

"WATCH OUT..." she heard the loud voice surprisingly coming over the music that was blasting in her ears. For the first time, she actually stopped running. Cate was zoning out to the point where she wasn't even watching where she was going. If she didn't hear the voice, she would've stepped into oncoming traffic and right in front of that truck that was speeding down the street. She could feel heart beating for the first time. She didn't feel invincible, and she actually liked that.

"What the..." She took her earbuds out of her ears to glance around her surroundings. She didn't know where she was. She didn't realize she ran so far. She looked down at her watch and realized she has been running for almost three hours now. That was weird. She wasn't out of breath and felt like she could actually run more if she needed to. She felt great. Even though she knew she was in shape, she wasn't normal.

This wasn't her. This was all Carol coming through again.