The whole part about how Cat's aunt and uncle were mean to her in Star Spangled Tori caught my attention during the episode, as well as the fact that Jade never denied the fact about her Aunt Susan being sick during Brain Squeezers. And I figured since I hadn't updated in like, forever, that I may as well write another story, but one that centers on both Cat and Jade. This takes place a few months after Victori-Yes.

Disclaimer: This is useless.

Chapter 1

Cat sat in the corner of the room, her knees drawn up to her chest and her hands over her ears. Maybe if I'm quiet they won't hear me, she thought to herself, biting her lower lip suppress a whimper as a mouse ran over her foot. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, breathing shakily and trying to think of something, anything, that make this situation a little more bearable.

Through the thin ceiling she could hear the loud and angry voices of her Uncle Walter and Aunt Pearl screaming at each other. She was surprised that no one had called the cops yet, but then again, it wasn't like they lived in a particularly good part of L.A. either. She could count all the cases of solved murders in this area on one hand.

The petite red-haired girl whimpered, pulling her knees up to her chest and burying her face in her arms. Her phone was still upstairs, and she knew that even if she went up the stairs, they would be up there, along with the crying baby and the half-starved one year would end the same way it always did-they would hit her and she would have to put makeup on to cover up the marks.

"Caterina!" a voice hollered down the stairs, startling her and making another whimper slip out. "Get upstairs right now, you know you're supposed to look after the baby when we leave the house!"

She scampered up the stairs quickly, almost crashing into her uncle at the top, only enraging him further. Her eyes widened as she stuttered out an apology, backing up against the door and looking frantically for an escape.

"You useless girl," he snapped, lifting his hand and slapping her with enough force to knock her to the floor. She cried out, but he acted like he didn't hear, only delivered a swift kick to her side and pulled her up by her blood-red hair. "When I call you, you come right away, and look where you're going, do you understand?"

Cat nodded quickly, swallowing the screams building up in her throat. Fighting only made it worse-she knew from experience and the numerous times she had ended up in the hospital because of various broken limbs with lousy excuses for how she got them.

Walter nodded in satisfaction, throwing her back onto the floor and crushing her hand under his boot as he walked into the kitchen. "Your aunt and I are going to be gone a few hours, so I expect you to take care of them," he barked, gesturing to the children huddled up in the corner of the room. "It's your job, Caterina, and you don't want to bring any of those friends of yours into this, do you?"

She shook her head, walking over to her cousins and pulling the five year old on her lap. "I'll look after them, Uncle Walter," she mumbled, trying to keep the tears at bay as she stared intently at the scared little boy sitting on her. "You can leave with Aunt Pearl now."

He grunted, shaking his head at her. "You'd better," he growled as he walked by them and out the door, slamming it shut as he stormed out of the small building that housed them.

The small teenager held her hand up to her face slowly, stretching out her fingers and nearly shrieking with the immense pain that seared through her hand. She bit down on her lower lip instead, the fingers of her other hand digging into her palm. It was definitely broken, but it wasn't like she could just leave the kids here. She knew what would happen if her uncle found out she left anyways.

"Cat," her cousin squeaked out, wrapping his little arms around her tightly and looking up at her with his huge doe eyes filled with tears. "why don't Mommy and Daddy love us? Is it because we're bad?"

"No Nathan," she said quietly, shaking her head slowly. "They love you. They just don't know how to tell you sometimes, that's all. How about I tell you a story and then you can go to bed?"

His small face brightened quickly and he bounded up to his feet, clasping her good hand in both of his. "Yes, yes, please," he begged excitedly, all traces of his tears evaporating instantly as he waited for his cousin to tell him a story.

She plastered a weary smile on her face, leading him across the hallway to the room next to the nursery. "Only one story though," she reminded him as he crawled into bed, the book of fairy-tales clutched in his arms.

"Alright," he replied, slipping underneath the covers and looking up at her with bright brown eyes. "Can you tell me the one where there were two kids that got lost in the forest because their step-mom sent them there?"

Cat flipped open the book, looking over to the little boy hesitantly when she found Hansel and Gretel in the book of Grimm's fairy-tales that Jade had given her a number of months ago. "Are you sure you want me to read that?" she asked, looking down at the little boy. "I've been reading that to you every single night since I first read it to you."

Nathan lifted his shoulders, tilting his head to the side and leaning against his older cousin's side. "It reminds me of Mommy and Daddy," he told her, a sad little smile tugging at his lips. "And can you tell it the way Jade told it? With the evil forest and the witch in the oven?"

The redhead shuddered at the mention of the gory version of the story. "How about something happier?" she suggested, flipping through the pages until she found Rapunzel in the book, showing him the pictures. "How about this one?"

"The one where the evil woman claws out the prince's eyes then throws him off the building?" he asked innocently, a confused look spreading across his face when Cat looked at him with a horrified expression on her face. "Or we could read the story where the birds-"

"No!" she exclaimed a little too loudly, waking up the baby in the nursery across the hallway. Her expression softened as she leaned forwards and pressed a kiss on the little boy's forehead. "How about I let you watch something tomorrow if you sleep well?"

He thought for a moment before nodding quickly, giving the girl a loud kiss on her cheek. "Okay!" he exclaimed happily as Cat turned off the light. "Night Kitty-Cat!"

"Night," she mumbled, watching the little boy for a few moments more before walking over to the room across the hallway and picking up the baby wailing her head off.

Immediately, the child stopped crying, looking up the girl, touching the tips of her red hair. He smiled a toothless little smile and giggled, oblivious to the cruel world that was beyond the cracking walls of the nursery.

Cat sighed, cradling little Tony in her arms as she looked outside at the dying lights lining the streets. "I'm sorry you have to grow up like this," she murmured, looking down into his big brown eyes. "You'll be learning to lie before you know what the truth is."


In a house not all too far away, a girl with purple streaks in her hair sat at the window, staring at a similar street with the lights fading. The sound of her father and stepmother downstairs yelling at each other while Jeremy cried should've bothered her, but it didn't.

Her phone buzzed again, like it had been doing all night with texts from her worried boyfriend. Normally, it would've been her making sure that he was alright if he hadn't been replying-but then again, tonight wasn't a normal night.

On a normal day, she wouldn't be hanging around her father's house, she would fight back whenever her step-mother insulted the way she dressed, she would ignore her step-brother when he begged her to come out of the bathroom, a text from Beck wouldn't go unnoticed (especially now that they had gotten back together), and she would never even think about letting anyone touch her precious manuscripts, let alone be cutting them up along with the director's cut of The Scissoring with the only pair of scissors she hadn't broken yet.

But needless to say, tonight wasn't just any other night. It was one of those nights that Jade would wake up in the morning to regret, wondering what had gotten into her the previous night. But right now, was just the calm before the storm.

The door opened and shut downstairs, and the sound of footsteps on the stairs came nearer and nearer to where the girl sat, dropping the scraps of a play one known as Love and Dreams and Darkness All Collide into the trash. A soft knock was delivered to the black-painted door, and for the first time that night, she spoke. "It's open."

She didn't have to turn around to know it was her Canadian boyfriend who wrapped his strong arms around her waist and pressed a light kiss to her left temple. "Hey," he murmured into her ear as his dark eyes took in all the damage his girlfriend had caused. "Babe, I didn't break-"

"It wasn't you," she interrupted, shifting slightly in his arms so they were face to face. Her lips curved into a tiny smile as she looked at his face for a fraction of a second before she frowned and sighed. "It was me."

Both of his eyebrows shot up his forehead and he shook his head slowly. "Wait, let me get this straight," he replied, looking at her in confusion. "You love this movie and scissors, about the same amount that you love me. And- wait, are those your plays?"

He reached into the garbage bin and pulled out the pieces, despite Jade's protests to just leave it alone. "Beck..." she started, stopping when he looked at her in surprise. Her teeth sunk into her bottom lip as she looked from his face to the paper. "Who cares about the stupid play anyways? It's not like I can ever even put in on at school. It was just taking up the space in the room!"

The boy sighed, running a hand through his hair and pulling the girl onto his lap. "Jade, what's going on?" he asked, pushing a strand of dark brown hair behind her ear. "And don't tell me that it's nothing, because I've been dating you for three years, so I know when something's wrong. You won't answer your phone, your dad says you've been quiet-you've even cut up your favorite movie!"

She exhaled slowly, shaking her head slowly and getting off of his lap. "I don't want them anymore," she retorted shortly, walking over to her bed and pulling her knees up to her chest. "And who cares if I'm quiet, you're always telling me to be nice to him anyways."

Beck shook his head in disbelief, looking at her exasperated. "Jade, what's wrong?" he repeated, folding his arms across his chest and leaning against the wall. Something sticking out from one of the books on her shelf caught his eye and he walked over to it, pulling out what turned out to be a letter. "And what's this?"

Her large blue eyes widened and she lunged at him, attempting to snatch the piece of paper away from him. "Give it to me!" she snapped, glaring at him in frustration when he held it out of her reach and began to read it silently. "Beck, please..."

His mouth turned downwards into a frown as he looked from the letter to his girlfriend. "Why is there an application to Brookshire in your room?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and waiting for an explanation. "Because the last time I checked, that was in Rancho Mirage."

She shrugged, casting her gaze to the floor. "No no," he reprimanded, stepping close to her and lifting her chin so they were looking into each others' eyes. "Just tell me what's wrong, and why that letter's here."

A sigh of defeat escaped her lips as she raised a hand to his face, resting it on his cheek briefly before letting it drop. "It's just..." she trailed off, shaking her head slowly as his arm made its way around her waist. "You can't do that,' she said, pushing his arm off of her and stepping back.

He frowned in confusion and tilted his head to the side. "Why not? You're my girlfriend, shouldn't I be allowed to hold you?" he asked, stepping closer to her until she raised her hand up between them.

"Beck, I said stop," she told him coolly, folding her arms across her chest and flicking her head in the direction of the door. "You should probably go. I still have a lot to do, and I'm pretty sure you do too."

"But Jade-" he started, but she cut him off by firmly pressing her hand to his mouth.

"For the love of God, Beckett, just leave," she snapped, but her tone began to quiver ever so slightly as she pushed him away when he tried to go close to her. "I need some time to be alone. I'll see you at school."

He let out a heavy sigh, leaning forward to plant a kiss on her pouty lips, but at the last moment she turned her head so it ended up landing on her cheek instead. "I'll see you," he replied emotionlessly, the door slamming shut with a resounding thud that echoed throughout the room.

She closed her eyes for a few moments before picking up the discarded letter off of the floor and grabbing the letter from her mother off the night-table as well. Jadelyn, she read, hoping this time the letter would be different. Your Aunt Susan has been getting progressively worse. But I'm at work during the night, so I would need someone to look after her during that time. I've talked it over with your father, and he agreed that it would be for the best for you to move out here with me. I have everything prepared for you here anyways, so you wouldn't have to worry about packing. If the school accepts you, then you will be transferring after Spring Break. You may go back to your father's to spend the summer, but it would be for the best if you came to live here permanently. -Your mother

Jade looked over at the pile of broken scissors and cut up lays, decorated with the shards of the DVD case that once held her favorite movie. "How am I supposed to tell Beck and Cat?" she wondered out loud as she walked back to the windowsill, staring at the street full of dying lights.

Good? Bad? Drop a review and tell me what you thought.

-backwards wonderland