Most faithful companion, appointed by God to be my guardian, my protector, and defender, and who never leavest my side, how shall I thank thee for thy faithfulness and love, and for all the benefits which thou hast conferred upon me?
Thou watch over me while I sleep; thou comfort me when I am sad; thou lift me up when I am down; thou avert the dangers that threaten me; thou warn me of those that are to come; thou withdraw me from sin, and excite me to good; thou exhort me to penance when I fall, and reconcile me to God.
Long ago should I have been thrust down into hell, unless by thy prayers thou hadst turned away from me the anger of God. Leave me not, nor forsake me ever, I beseech thee, but still comfort me in adversity, restrain me in prosperity, defend me in danger, assist me in temptations, lest at any time I fall beneath them.
Offer up in the sight of the Divine Majesty my prayers and groanings, and all my works of piety, and make me to persevere in grace until I come to everlasting life. Amen.
My first proper six fic! Finally had the time gave up on revising to finish this! The idea is I wanted modern Kat to be happy and have friends so she joins a girl guide group! (Like girl scouts but British) Any feedback is welcome! Also I have more headcanons and ideas so if people want to know more or see this become a series, let me know!
The realisation hit Katherine when she was on her phone one day. She was looking at all the posts she was tagged in of friends seeing the show together. It filled her with joy that people loved it so much, loved her so much but there was something else not quite right. It was when she saw a selfie of two girls, around her age, looking like they were having the time of their lives that it clicked. Katherine was lonely.
Sure, she had the queens who loved her and she loved them. If she needed something, they would be happy to help. But they weren’t the same as having friends her age. Friends she could go shopping with or chat and gossip with or just hang out. Sure, she does all those things with the queens but Kat knows they all see her as a child. It’s lovely, and Kat knows she needs it half the time, but they’ve been doing the show for a while so surely, she’s made some progress by now. And it’s not like the other queens don’t have other friends. Catherine has got to know people at her church, the Annes always seem to know someone when they go out in the evenings, heck, Kat’s pretty sure Cathy has at least 3 pen pals. It makes sense she’d want to talk to other people too.
She decides to approach Jane about it.
“Mum, I’ve been thinking… I think I want to make friends like my own age? People to hang out and chat with and stuff. Not that I can’t do that with you and the other queens! I love the time we spend together” Kat rushes to add. “I really appreciate all you’ve done for me and I don’t know what I’d have done without you but… I just… wanna talk to someone my own age? The other queens have all made friends and stuff. I just… don’t know how.” Kat trails off, feeling silly about bringing it up.
Jane is quick to respond, sensing that Kat is unsure. “Kat, I think that’s a wonderful idea. It makes sense that you’d want to make new friends, we aren’t exactly your age even if we try to be ‘down with the kids.’” Jane nudges Kat who rolls her eyes in response. “I love you, sweetheart. If you want to find something to do, meet new people then go for it. Perhaps you can join a club, start a new hobby? I’ll try and find something, if you want?”
“Thanks mum, that’d be great.” Kat gives a smile of relief and heads back to her room. Jane is pleasantly surprised by Kat’s suggestion. She’s changed so much from the quiet girl who suffered alone; it fills Jane with pride.
Unfortunately, there weren’t any obvious answers. It wasn’t like Kat went to school and could meet people there or join any clubs, and she didn’t have much knowledge of modern hobbies for girls Kat’s age. She decided to do some research later and hopefully something will come up. Luckily, Catherine had a suggestion when she heard what Jane was doing.
“A club for Kat… I might be able to help with that actually. There’s this group who meet once a week at my church, I think they’re called guides or possibly rangers? They have a bunch of crafts and photos of trips on a display in the hall. Do you think that might work?” Catherine offered. “If it helps… I think it’s a girls only club, if you catch my drift?”
“I see. Well it’s certainly worth a shot, thanks Catherine. Guides, right? I’ll look into it.” Jane smiled and spent the next few minutes looking into what guides were exactly and found Girlguiding, a community built around giving girls opportunities and adventures. It sounded perfect, except that guides were 10-14. A bit more searching revealed that girls 14-18 could be a ranger but that still wouldn’t work for Kat. The section on young leaders sounded more promising, though. It wouldn’t be quite the same, but maybe it was more appropriate. Kat could be a young leader for a guide group, giving her the chance to socialise with other leaders around her age, while also giving her some responsibility. She didn’t say it specifically but Jane felt Kat was trying to be more independent. This seemed perfect, and if Kat was nervous about going alone, Jane could always volunteer as a regular leader too. Just in case, if Kat let her. Deciding it was a good option, Jane suggested it to Kat.
“What do you think? If it’s not right I’ll look for something else. You can stop at any time and…” Jane paused, not sure if she should continue. “If you don’t want to be alone, I could volunteer too but only if you want me to!” Jane watches Kat, trying to gauge her reaction.
“I like that idea. It sounds like it could be fun. If… if you were there, it wouldn’t be a big deal, right? They wouldn’t mind, would they?”
“Not at all, Kat. I’ll ask the leader when we can start, yeah?”
And so, Jane emails the guide leader asking if they could join. The leader, Joan, is all too happy to have more help, having recently lost a leader. She mentions a couple other young leaders who were sure to welcome Kat. She invited them to come early next Thursday so they can meet the others and give it a go for the evening.
Kat feels great about the evening right up until she’s getting ready to leave and starts stressing over what she’s wearing. What if the other girls think she looks silly? What if they make fun of her for bringing her mum? She tries to hide it but Jane notices as they drive to the church (Catherine gave them directions as Jane doesn’t trust those SatNav things).
“You alright, love? Nervous?” She puts a gentle hand on Kat’s leg. “I’m sure everyone will be lovely but if you don’t like today, we don’t have to come back. I’ll be there the whole time if you need me.”
“But what if… never mind.” Kat turns, staring out the passenger window.
“What if what, love? You can tell me.”
Kat answers in a quiet voice. “What if they think I’m dumb for bringing my mum with me?”
“They’re not going to think that. If it will make you feel better, I’ll leave you to do your thing tonight, yeah? I’ll keep my distance, just there if you need me, just in case. I don’t have to come back next week if you’re happy on your own. But let’s give it a try together this week, yeah?”
“Ok. Thanks mum.” Katherine gives a little smile as they pull into the car park.
Jane unbuckles her seatbelt and leans over, giving Kat a hug and a kiss on her forehead. “Let’s go make some friends.”
As they make their way inside, Kat resisting the urge to hold Jane’s hand, they meet Joan. She smiles brightly as she shakes each of their hands, thanking them for their help. Joan then introduces them to Maggie, another young leader, before giving a brief explanation of the plan for the evening. The girls are in groups doing their Go For Its so each group has their own plan and should bring their own supplies, leaving the leaders to just move back and forth, helping out where they’re needed and checking in to make sure they’re all making progress. Joan also mentions a guide, Lily, who is special needs and thus they should avoid making physical contact or crowding her unless she initiates. Finished with the briefing, Maggie suggests she and Kat collect the supplies so she knows where they are.
“So, what’s your deal? Sorry, that sounded rude. I mean… you don’t have to tell me anything. I just meant like… let me start again.” Maggie took a deep breath and put on a bright smile, “Hey, I’m Maggie and I’m 20. I volunteer here as a break from studying at uni. How about you?”
Kat gave a small chuckle at Maggie’s attempts. It made her feel a bit better about being so nervous. “I’m Kat, 19, and I spend most of my time performing in a west-end show.” She left out the fact that she was a reincarnation of a Tudor queen from 500 years. Probably not the most normal thing to tell people. “I’m here because I’m… I wanted to make friends. I don’t go to school so, yeah.” She trailed off.
“Well there are lots of people to make friends with here! Myself included, if you want me that is.”
“Yeah! I’d… I’d like that.”
“Awesome. Well here are the pens and such so let’s take them back before they think we’re hiding. So what’s it like being on the west-end?”
Meanwhile Jane was taking the moment of privacy with Joan to warn her about Kat’s… situation. “She has anxiety but has been making great progress recently. If anything happens, I’ll be able to handle it but I’m trying to give her more space tonight. She’s a bit worried people are going to judge her for me being here and I just want her to relax and make friends.” Joan is very understanding and they settle down over cups of tea, getting to know each other.
Kat and Maggie return with the pens, already getting along great, when guides start turning up. The first few girls all sit in groups chatting before the meeting starts. Eventually the other leaders, Maria and Holly, arrive. Maria has brought three guides with her, one of them being her own daughter. Holly turns up just as the meeting starts and immediately moves to sit with a couple of the guides, chatting quietly and barely looking up from her phone as Joan introduces Kat and Jane. She gives Kat a brief “Hey” before moving with her chosen group to get on with the evening.
The rest of the evening goes well. Kat follows Maggie around to begin with until she reaches a group that are trying to come up with interpretive dance. She watches what they have so far and starts offering ideas to extend it. Without realising it, she spends the rest of the evening helping and getting to know the girls and even being incorporated in the dance herself. When Joan called everyone together, Kat was disappointed but looked forward to next week when the group was going to write some short songs about things they liked.
Once they had packed up the few supplies, tidied their mess, sang the closing song (Jane made note to find the lyrics later), and sent most of the guides on their way home, Jane and Kat said goodbye and headed on their own way. Holly was staying on for rangers and seemed the most excited she had all evening, though she was currently smiling and frantically typing on her phone. Maggie had headed off a bit earlier to catch the bus back and Maria was waiting with her herd of children until the other guides were gone. In the car back, Kat had a big grin on her face.
Luke on one side and Kylo on the other, all Rey saw was a blinding light when she plunged her saber into Snoke...
.... and then there was nothing but darkness. Complete and utter darkness.
Instead of posting this to my collection, I felt compelled to post it separately because I really wanted the emotions of the ficlet to stand on their own. Warning for character injury, but no death.
