Speak Up

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N: This oneshot is a serious oneshot, a bit emotional at that, and I do want to get a message through it so there's something I will leave in the author note at the end. So read with care. I wanted to call it "Say Something", but I didn't want people getting confused with the song and thinking that this was connected to a song. There will be a few time shifts as this spans over a short period of time. Of course, I have to let you know that it got so long I needed to separate it into 6 short parts.

-SAY SOMETHING-

Catherine Valentine swept her hair over her ear as she drove into the parking lot of her new job. It was an unpaid volunteer job that she was doing for college credit during her junior year of high school, but she was nervous and it was her first day, so she didn't know how she was going to handle herself.

There had been many volunteer groups that arrived at Hollywood Arts and sought out students to help. Among these were the animal shelter, where Tori decided to volunteer, or the costume shop where Jade went to volunteer at. She wanted to do something more impactful.

Cat parked her vehicle near the front door of the building and shut off the car. Her eyes shot up to the building and she sucked in a heavy breath of air. "Here I go." She was unable to tell her friends that she was volunteering at this place because it could cause potential conflicts.

When she entered the location she met with the woman that would be supervising her. She was a tall woman with a statute appearance and long, feathery sand-colored hair. Her brown eyes held a kind and caring expression, and a sweet smile with mocha lipstick.

"Hi, I'm Cat Valentine. I signed up to volunteer."

"I'm Ruby Danica." The woman extended her arm and Cat returned the handshake. Ruby's grip was firm, yet gentle. Cat moved her eyes up to the woman's and smiled back at her. "I'm the coordinator, I would like to go over a few things with you before I let you begin. You understand we have rules set in motion for both your safety, and the safety of those who call our hotline."

"Yes ma'am." She understood one of the first things was she could not give her given or full name out, but that was one of the few things the representative said.

"For confidentiality purposes, you should not discuss what you are told over the phone with anyone. That said, we request that you not tell people that you volunteer here." She nodded and looked towards the right. There were several people walking around what was a large office building with various cubicles. "Let's go over some guidelines and things that you need to understand and I'll train you before we get you started. Do you understand?"

"Yes ma'am."

Training took an incredible amount of time, but Ruby had helped her to the point that she felt prepared when she first sat down at her cubicle. Her headset was heavy, and the mouthpiece seemed too close to her mouth, so she had to manipulate it to get it to a comfortable position.

After struggling with the headset, she signed onto her computer and closed her eyes. Part of her was scared of saying the wrong thing, or perhaps that whatever she said would not be enough.

Ruby told her that many people just call to talk. There were occasions when somebody truly needed help, but when they decided to call, it was a good sign.

"I need you to understand something, Ms. Danica. I'm scared that I won't be able to say the right things." She looked towards the table and frowned as Ruby crossed her legs and leaned back in the metal chair across from her.

"Why do you want to volunteer here, Cat? Everyone has a reason, it's okay if there's something personal in your past. Is there?"

"There is." She ran her fingers along her knees, hoping to wipe the sweat from her palms off on her yellow skirt. "Someone very close to me, when I was younger, was having a lot of-" Her voice broke and her eyes became heavy as tears brimmed at her eyelids. She opened her lips and let out a rattled breath. "My older brother. He came back from Afghanistan , he was different. Depressed and didn't speak as much as he did. I tried to talk to him, tried to get him to open up to me, because we were inseparable when we were young I thought he'd…I thought he'd tell me what was wrong." She furrowed her brow and gripped her skirt as a tightness came over her chest.

"Sometimes the trauma people go through affects them so deeply. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the way they feel, it is tragic and unfortunate, but we should never judge." Ruby pressed her lips together and moved her palms together, bouncing them lightly in the air. "The thing you must remember is some people don't want that help, those who call our hotline are the ones that do, they want someone to talk to-to hear them. We have to do our best to be that person. Your brother, I am truly sorry for your loss."

She wiped her eyes and cleared away the uneasiness in her throat. "Thank you. I really want to be able to help prevent-"

"One thing to understand Cat. You cannot prevent it, but you can talk to someone and hopefully through talking you may enable the person to either seek help or think again. Remember that the action is not a selfish act, many people accuse that, and it only creates pain. The truth, Cat, is that some people get to a point where they can see no point in going forward. Never tell a caller something that so many do."

"What is that?"

"'Think about your family', or 'how could you do that to so and so'. You're telling that person that the reason they should keep going is for someone else, but you want to be a person who can inspire hope or foster in someone a sense that maybe they can help live for themselves. That's where it counts."

Cat typed out her profile for Ruby and looked towards the active call on the side of the computer screen. She could hear phones ringing in the other cubicles, though she didn't hear talking. Primarily each cubicle was closed off so that a counselor would have privacy and not lose confidentiality.

As the hours passed, she'd received a number of calls from people who wanted to talk. There were people who were depressed, people who were afraid of a coming medical diagnosis. There were even those who felt like they were at the ends of their rope with something, but no one that was considering the end of their life.

It wasn't until she had an hour left that she received a call from a woman with a startling tone. She sounded frustrated, but was also struggling to speak through her sobs. Cat removed her fingers from the keyboard and pulled the corners of her lips back into her cheeks as the woman's sobs struck a chord in her heart.

"Ma'am?" She tried her best to keep calm, hoping that the woman would start to relax if she heard her soft voice. "My name is Kathy. I'm here to talk." As the woman spoke, she thought there was a familiarity in her tone, but that wasn't the first time she heard people who sounded familiar yet weren't familiar at all. "Is everything okay?"

"No," the woman cried, "Everything is wrong. It hurts so bad, my chest." The woman's anguished scream sent chills down Cat's spine. For a moment she was afraid she might be talking to someone that had already hurt themselves. She wanted to call for Ruby, but remembered she needed to be a constant presence. Any second leaving someone alone could be detrimental.

"Tell me what happened, sweetie."

"My heart hurts, my chest hurts from crying." Cat's eyes started to water and she took a slow, calming breath. She was exhausted and wanted to go home, but she felt it was her duty to stay on line with this caller. "I got this number from the counselor's office at school…no one's home…so I wanted to call. My daddy's coming home in half an hour, so I just want someone to talk to so I don't feel alone."

"I understand." She smiled slightly and leaned back in her chair, pulling her hands from the desk. "Do you have a good relationship with your dad?" The girl sniffed loudly and scoffed.

"No. He ignores me. Everyone does, nobody even wants me around."

Cat tilted her head and brushed her lips together. "What makes you say that?" For a minute everything went silent, so Cat had to check the active call to see if they were still connected. If she lost the caller, she would have to redial just in case. Fortunately the girl started to talk.

"Everyone tells me that. So it must be true. Maybe I try too hard, but I do it to get attention."

"Do what?"

"Act out. I just dress extravagantly, sometimes act like a drama queen because I want attention. I want people to like me, to want me around. My sister? She ignores me, her friends all hate me, and my parents don't even act like I exist. It didn't used to be like that, it used to be better. I used to get along with my sister, but now I feel like I have to fight just to be in the same room with her. I don't like to be alone-I really hate being alone, it scares me so much the thought that I'll never be good enough for anybody. I'll grow up without friends, without family, without someone who cares about me…I'll die an old maid."

"I see." She leaned to the right and brought her hand up to her cheek. "You know, I worry about that myself sometimes. I worry that I'm not good enough to be a part of my friends' lives, thinking I always have to please them, but you know what keeps me up? Realizing that I should focus on making myself happy."

"I wish it were that easy for me, but it's not. Every day I face rejection, I face hatred, and every day it gets harder…It's to the point where I just can't deal with it anymore." It sounded like someone she knew who was always being attacked by Jade and the others, she was always afraid to say anything for fear of them turning onto her. "My own dad doesn't even want me here anymore, he wants move away and stop bothering him when I leave for college."

"Why do you stay in an unhealthy environment?"

"I can't go anywhere. I don't have a job and it's cheaper to live at home than it is to on campus somewhere. Plus, I really don't want to be alone. I can't stand being alone…" Cat nodded and looked up at the clock. It was getting late, but she'd be willing to stay later if she had to. "Kathy, my Dad's driving into the driveway. I think I'm going to go downstairs and greet him."

"Okay." Cat looked to the extension number on her mousepad. "I'm available to talk at extension 3871. Remember the hotline is open twenty-four seven. Any one of the responders here will be happy to talk with you should you need to contact us again."

"Thank you for talking with me."

"You're very welcome."

I was asked to do this by a friend of mine, and inspiration also comes from an episode of Ghost Adventures in which they talked about the Golden Gate Bridge.

So I have to separate this in parts because of how lengthy it became. Because it is meant to be a oneshot, I am giving it all at once-so do not jump on me for putting multiple chapters up at a time-I have to do that with this.