Vi felt like she hadn't slept in months.
Truthfully, it had only been several weeks since the incident with Jinx, but the stress and guilt weighing heavily on her mind made her feel like it had been much, much longer. She hadn't been sleeping much or eating - both highly unusual for her - and the way her cheeks were beginning to gaunt was making her sick. She'd tried to keep things under control, to continue working as though things were normal, but the police department was in chaos.
Normally, if the sheriff were to be declared killed in action, a new one would be pulled through the ranks and promoted. With Caitlyn's uncertain condition, however, things had become complicated. Despite her orderliness and absolute marriage to her work, Caitlyn had never taken the time to indicate who would be a good candidate to take over her position. So many bastards, young and old, were vying for the position that it was throwing the whole department into disarray. While the higher ups in the department were repeatedly saying how they "lamented having to have such conversations," they didn't seem particularly woeful as they declared that if Caitlyn's condition didn't improve soon, they would find someone to fill her boots. Heartless scum. Vi was becoming sick of the politics, and even more sick of hearing Caitlyn being talked about like she were already dead.
Vi had tried to go about business as usual, she really had. With no real head authority, all the officers were chasing whatever cases they could find. Caitlyn had kept everything so meticulous, so laid out and so organized that to see the systems she had painstakingly developed and utilized be thrown to the side made Vi's guts ache. Vi had pursued a few violent crimes, a handful of robberies, but the fifth time she had lost it and smashed the perpetrator mercilessly into the ground in an animalistic fit of rage, the higher ups put her on "mandatory stress leave."
Her badge taken away and her body deprived of sleep, Vi was beginning to feel more than a little anxious. Her drinking and smoking had increased significantly, and the time she spent with people was becoming little to none.
She had tried keeping up communication with Jayce; after all, they often ran into each other while visiting Caitlyn in the hospital. Vi would leave Caitlyn's room only to see Jayce walking by with yet another giant bouquet of flowers to join the collection stacked neatly by her window. In reality, it was Jayce who had tried to keep contact with Vi. He insisted that they were similar in many ways; they both loved building hextech devices, they both were relatively reclusive, neither with a substantial amount of friends, and they both cared about Caitlyn's well-being.
"We can bond over this," Jayce had said, placing his hand on Vi's shoulder. He was one of the few people who was taller than her, and she hated that.
"Fuck off, Jayce." She had warned him, the dark circles that seemed to grow larger under her eyes every time he saw her giving him pause. Every day she looked more and more like a wild animal, lost and abandoned and slowly starving to death.
Jayce had continued trying, continued showing up at Vi's apartment to try and get her to leave her home and socialize with him. He prodded her and kneaded her, trying harder and harder to break through the increasingly thick shell she was placing herself in.
When she finally flew off the handle and nearly beat him senseless, Jayce stopped trying.
That was when Vi knew she had no one left to talk to.
Excluding, of all people, Jinx.
Vi didn't know why she was doing it. When she wasn't sitting by Caitlyn's bed, rambling in a low gravelly voice all the things that she was missing, she was spending her time by Jinx's cell.
She knew her behavior seemed unnervingly obsessive to the other officers, and she didn't quite know herself why she was visiting the criminal so often. At first, she would sit down, have some snarky chat with the gunner, and then leave, but now, more often than not, she found herself just sitting in silence with her.
"What are you doing here, Fathands?" Jinx had asked, a confused look on her face. Her bruises were fading back to the pallid tone of her snow white skin, but her wounded shoulder was still in bandages, and she still wheezed when she moved around too fast. Vi had stared absent mindedly at the wall, eyes unfocused and ringed by heavy, dark bags. Slowly, she had turned her head and met Jinx's magenta eyes with her worn violet ones.
"I guess my enemy is the only person I have left." Vi had murmured wearily, and Jinx never asked again.
Instead, they sat in silence, occasionally looking at each other, occasionally speaking a few words.
The bright light suddenly erupting into her vision startled Vi back to reality. Pulling a huge, gauntlet-encased hand to shield her eyes, she realize the large elevator she had been riding had come to a stop, the doors opening wide with a low hiss. She became aware of the other passengers in the elevator car with her, and shifted uneasily.
The other champions filed out around her as she left the playing field that was the Summoners' Rift. She was being summoned less and less lately, her personal turmoil making her an unsuitable candidate to connect with her summoner. As a result, her performance was beginning to go downhill, and her summoners and teammates were not appreciating it.
The match she'd just fought in had been similar. Even controlled by one of the best summonses specializing in the jungle, Vi just couldn't seem to find her focus. She was either too slow or too unobservant or too reckless, ignoring her summoner's orders and throwing herself into every team fight just to end up dying right away. When her teammates complained, she snarked back, unnecessarily harsh and venomous and brutal, completely unlike her warm hearted and humorous ribbing she usually gave. She was both depressed and strung out, uncertain whether she felt more like crying or hurting someone.
She stopped as she seemingly collided with a wall. The fuck? She certainly hadn't thought she was near a wall, and why was this wall so warm-
Vi realized after a moment that she had actually walked face first into a gigantic, meaty body that had, for some reason, stopped in front of her. A bare back of rippling muscles stood still inches before her face, and once she shook off the surprise, she gritted her teeth in irritation.
"Hey, idiot, watch where you're going. Keep it moving." She snapped, nudging the massive shoulder that towered almost a full head above her. The soft glow of the magical flames overhead bounced off the person's huge bald head, shaking occasionally with the man's laugh. Vi received no acknowledgement of her shout. However, she was not one to be ignored. Becoming quickly incensed, Vi took her large gauntlet and pushed the man hard. He barely moved, like he had been hit with a mere bothersome wind. He did take notice, though, and the bald head turned around to see what the fuss was about. Vi was greeted with the biggest moustache she had ever seen.
"There is problem here, young lady?"
Vi recognized him as the support from the team she had just faced. Braum, the Heart of the Freljord, as the official League roster called him. He looked down at her, big warm eyes boring into hers.
"Yeah, you. You're in my way. Now get out of it." Vi snarled, her face contorting into a nasty sneer. The man regarded her strangely, but without anger or annoyance; instead, his features were twisted in concern. This made Vi almost howl in irritation. She didn't need this weirdo's concern, of all things.
"Come now, child, there is no need for such vulgarity." He chastised calmly, his mouth turning up in a grin beneath that mammoth-sized moustache. "Violence won't solve anything."
To prove a point, Vi swung her fist as hard as she could manage, aiming straight for his big head. But the gauntlet never collided. Instead, he caught the fist in his own huge, meaty hands, and pulled her up by the wrist, giving a heaving grunt and lifting her slightly off the ground. The sudden disarm caught Vi by surprise, and it was all she could do not to yelp out loud, her legs scrambling as she struggled to find the ground again. Braum pulled her a little closer and met her, eye to eye.
"I have heard of you, child, and what I hears brings sadness to my heart. The sheriff is no longer healthy. This hurts you. I can see it in your eyes." he murmured softly, his great booming voice surprisingly gentle. Vi almost snarled in his face but the pleading look in his eye gave her pause. "But you must not give up hope yet. You must be strong. This is what she needs you to do."
For a moment, Braum just looked into Vi's eyes, searching for a hint that she was taking him seriously. There was a light but insistent tapping on his arm, and they both looked down. There stood one of the security guards for the Institute of War.
"Is there a problem here?" he asked, his voice stern and his hand twitching near the weapon by his side. Braum gave a hearty laugh and grinned.
"There is not, my good man!" he assured him, gently letting Vi's wrist go and dropping her back on her feet. He gave her a light pat on the head, and to her surprise, she let him. "Everything will be fine, young one, you will see. Until then, just be strong."
Vi didn't know what to think as the big man made his way through the high ceilinged room.
"So, Fathands, you miss it yet?" Jinx asked languidly, laying on her back on her cot while resting her head close to the bars. Vi regarded her strangely with a sideways glance. She was stretched out across a chair, her long legs splaying on a side table she'd dragged over.
"Miss what?" She asked. She tightened her strong arms across her chest, her mouth twisting into a frown. Jinx danced her slender fingers across the exposed skin of her belly, a splay of snow white fingertips across fading purple bruises. Her thin lips pulled into a grin.
"All the chasing, and punching, and the explosions, and the games..." Jinx's voice trailed off with a wistful sigh, as though she was thinking of a time long past. Vi gave a disdainful grunt in response, tightening her folded posture and sneering.
"Not even. It's thanks to your fun and games that the Sheriff is still laying in a hospital bed." Vi said, her tone not as strong and cutting as she'd like. No matter how many times she'd had to do it, no matter how many times she thought about it, talking about Caitlyn still hurt. She swallowed the lump in her throat down expertly, and averted her gaze from Jinx's piercing stare. She heard a light chuckle come from the cell.
"Say, Fathands, can I ask you a question?" Jinx sat up, shakily supporting herself with her good arm. Her eyes were no longer bloodied and burst, but the black circles remained, rimming the magenta eyes with dark patches. Still, they were unnerving as they bore into Vi's. Vi raised her scarred eyebrow.
"No." Came the grumbled response, and she turned away again.
"So I've been wondering for a real long time..." Jinx continued without pause. Vi chewed her lip in annoyance. Jinx pulled herself close up to the bars, twisting her hand in a suggestive manner. "Are you and the noble Sheriff... Well, you know."
Vi felt a heat rise through her veins and she had to keep her jaw from dropping and sputtering like a fish. Jinx grinned sadistically and waved her hands in a frantic manner.
"Not any more, of course, she is kind of a comatose body. Getting hot and heavy with an almost lifeless corpse would be pretty sick and twisted, even for you-"
Vi was on her feet and gripping the iron bar with all her strength in seconds. Jinx pulled back a little bit, Vi's violent outburst during her first visit still fresh in her memory. This didn't stop her however; she had hit a nerve, and the knowledge gave her sadistic joy. The grin didn't leave her face as she clicked her tongue.
"C'mon, Fathands, no need to be ashamed about it. I mean, with that dress, those curves, that accent, I'm not sure anyone could-"
"Jinx, shut the fuck up." Vi snarled, the heat rising to her cheeks in both horror and embarrassment. She made a move to grab Jinx's wrist, but she had pulled the lithe limb out of harm's way. Vi just wished she'd stop giggling. "How fucking dare you disrespect the Sheriff in her current condition, have you got no goddamn soul?"
The infuriated tone did nothing to quell the wheezy giggles wracking her small frame.
"The Sheriff? Why so formal all of a sudden, Fathands? Isn't she your Cupcake? Your sweet little precious cuppy cake-"
"Enough!" Vi roared, her face turning a violently dark crimson, her veins almost popping out below her tattooed skin with tension. She slammed her fists down on the table, the resounding bang bringing Jinx to a quiet murmur. "That's enough, Jinx."
To her credit, Jinx looked more confused and annoyed than actually frightened, sitting back with a quizzical look.
"But isn't she your precious, precious Cupcake? The one you'd gladly use your meaty body to take a bullet for?" Jinx drawled, her pointed chin resting in the palm of one hand, the fingers drumming on her cheek.
"Of course I would. She's my partner. She would do the same for me, any day." Vi responded with an edge to her voice. She leaned against the bars with her right arm up, her forehead resting tiredly on the forearm. She let her eyes fall closed with a quiet murmur. Vi didn't know how she hadn't collapsed from the lack of sleep yet. A soft snort came from the girl in front of her.
"Well, you, if you wanna look it that way, she kinda already did."
Vi grated her teeth at Jinx's sick joke, but didn't respond. That had been bothering her. Caitlyn had been hit because of her. She was in that hospital bed because of her. Vi couldn't take not knowing. She looked from her resting position and stared hard at Jinx.
"Why her?" She asked, her hands almost shaking for the first time in a long time, her voice almost coming out as a hollow plea. "You had me at your feet. You could have killed me no problem. I'm the one you want dead, so why would you hit Cait?" She opened her eyes and stared pleadingly into Jinx's eyes, desperate for an answer. Jinx regarded her strangely, like she didn't understand what Vi was saying to her.
"I don't want you dead." She responded plainly, and Vi's heart skipped a beat from the bluntness of it. She contorted her features in confusion.
"What are you talking about? You've been trying to kill me this whole time, I've noticed the way you focus more on me than Cait, always taunting me-"
"No, no. You misunderstand. I don't want you dead." Jinx's voice had taken such a serious tone that Vi didn't know how to react. The usually cheery and bubbly voice she'd grown accustomed to had become low and sober. It made Vi's blood run cold. Slowly and surely, her body lithe like a cat on the prowl, Jinx pulled herself up on the bars so her face was parallel with Vi's, her dark eyes wide and burning into hers. Vi felt her stomach drop at the look. "I just want you to understand."
Vi gulped noisily. She could handle an arrogant punk, could handle Jinx when she was screaming and laughing and taunting her. But this, this Jinx - this was creeping her out. She felt stripped bare by her gaze, and she hated it. What had happened to her resolve? Where had her strength gone?
"Understand what?" she managed to croak out. Jinx pointed her finger upwards, towards the ceiling.
"You are not like them." She breathed. "You are not like those idiots in the uniforms, and you are not like your precious Sheriff." She pressed her forehead against the cool iron bars, close enough that Vi could feel the smaller girl's wheezing breaths on her face. "You're like me."
"No. No, I'm not." Vi hissed back vehemently. She steeled her eyes and pulled her lips into a tight grimace.
"Vi," Jinx said her name with a sharp edge, the first time she had ever done so. Hearing her name seeping through those thin lips sent a disgusting, unpleasant shudder down Vi's spine. She reached her fingers through the bars, wrapping them around Vi's hand that still gripped the iron. "Don't be stupid. You know we're the same."
The air seemed to buzz as Vi and Jinx locked gazes. The moment seemed to turn into hours as Jinx unflinchingly stared at her, a single eyebrow quirking. Her grip on Vi's hand tightened.
"You and me, we're like blood. We're the same. Like family."
Vi's stomach felt like it would soon be violently ill, but she stiffened her lip, and wrenched her hand away from the gunner's. She stood up, rubbing her wrist with her other hand, and glared at Jinx.
"Fuck you." Her voice shook almost imperceptibly as the curses left her lips. She gathered her keys off the table, and kicked her chair back into the corner. "You are scum, and I am nothing like you. Closest thing I have to family is Cait. I don't want anything to do with you." Vi held her hand on the light switch, fingers grazing it lightly. "You're gonna rot in here, you know. You're gonna waste away down here and ain't no one gonna miss you." Jinx's eye twitched a little, her weird, intense stare turning into a hateful, malicious glare. "Good bye, Jinx."
Vi slammed the switch down, and the lights in the basement turned off with a bang.
Pulling her favourite red coat over her torso, Vi left the madwoman behind, alone in the blackness.
"You know, Cait, this is all your fault." Vi said matter-of-factly to the unconscious Sheriff. The Sheriff was not looking so ghoulish as she had when she'd first arrived; the breathing tube had been taken out of her mouth, and the cast had been taken off, leaving her arm back to its normal petite size. Her colour was beginning to return to normal, and she looked more like a human than a ghost. Still, though, Vi could never convince herself that she was simply sleeping; the steady heartbeat in the background broke that illusion, even if she barely even registered it anymore. She sighed as she leaned forward in her chair, holding the warm hand between hers and stroking the back lightly. She felt guilty doing such a thing when Caitlyn didn't know, but she felt an unbearable need to touch her. Even though she had not heard the other woman's voice in weeks, she could still tell she was there by the light pulse tapping just beneath her pristine skin. Vi closed her eyes and just felt for the pulse beneath her fingers. Her sigh filled the room. "I never cared about anyone before you. It was all me, me, me. Now look what you've done."
Vi traced the lines across the back of Caitlyn's hand, inspecting it carefully and noticing the little scars criss-crossing along her skin. Years of police work had not been kind to the woman's hands, Vi noted, as they looked much too thin and calloused despite their outwardly soft appearance. Vi felt a heat rush to her face as she remembered Jinx's earlier taunting. She gulped hard, pushing the hard lump in her throat down and her anxiety with it.
"Don't tell anyone I said it, but I really miss you." Vi murmured, gently holding Caitlyn's limp fingers and looking out the window. She bit her lip hard. "Even if you did, I'd just deny it."
The silence stretched on for a few moments as Vi watched the clouds lazily floating by across the horizon. She chuckled to herself bitterly.
"I don't know how I got here. When I met you, you were such an asshole." A small smile played upon Vi's lips as she remembered the early days of her recruitment onto the force. "You were such an arrogant bitch, always calling shots and hovering and controlling. God, you were unbearable. But I guess I was too." She bit her lip and dropped her gaze to the pristine floor, her eyes following the snaking trail of wires and tubes and cords that made a racetrack across the tiles. "You took a big chance on me, Cupcake, and I…" Vi swallowed hard again, her eyes beginning to feel hot and itchy. "I let you down. And I can never make up for that." Vi despised the way her voice was cracking, and despised the way her vision was beginning to blur and the porcelain hand she was staring at was becoming a white blob. She squeezed the fingers tighter, her knuckles turning white from the pressure, but was completely surprised when she felt the fingers weakly squeeze back.
Vi's eyes widened, and she looked over at Caitlyn's face. It was just as still, just as emotionless, but something was different. Vi could feel it. She stood halfway out of her chair, groping back for Caitlyn's hand, squeezing it desperately. "Caitlyn? Caitlyn?" Vi called out, leaning forward to see if there was a change in her breathing. She moved her hand to her cheek, pushing her limp head around in an attempt to wake her. "Cait, can you hear me?" Vi let go of Caitlyn's body, her head beginning to move of its own volition, and she slammed the button on the wall to call for a nurse. Vi was completely sure her heart was going to either explode or beat out of her chest any second. "C'mon, Cait, c'mon, are you awake? Are you there?" Vi pleaded, grasping Caitlyn's hands again and squeezing tightly, desperately trying to will her into squeezing back again. She couldn't have imagined it, and she wasn't imagining the way it seemed Caitlyn was beginning to slightly stir. There was a banging behind her as a nurse came rushing through the door.
"Is there a problem?" The nurse demanded, her voice betraying no anxiety, only a calm authority. She saw Vi hunched over the Sheriff's body, hands wrapped tight around her forearm, and stepped forward to gently pry them off. "Let go, please. Explain what happened."
Vi spun around to look the nurse in the eye, the same young nurse she had met that frightful first night bringing Caitlyn here. The nurse looked shocked to see the pleading tears in the rough-looking brawler's eyes.
"She's waking up." Vi hissed, her fingers flexing tighter despite what she'd been told. "She squeezed my hand, I felt it. And look, just look, she's moving around." Indeed, when the stunned nurse looked past Vi's disheveled hair, she saw that the Sheriff was beginning to stir. The nurse looked at Vi, and gripped her shoulder.
"I need to go find Dr. Dubois. He should be just getting ready to check out, but he'll need to be here for this. Watch over her very carefully, if she's able to speak she's likely to be extremely disoriented. Do not let her move around." She instructed in a clear, even tone. When Vi nodded in response, the nurse hurried off, her shoes clicking rapidly as she rushed out of the room. Vi turned back to Caitlyn, gripping her hand once more and resting her other hand on Caitlyn's face.
"Cait, can you hear me? Everything's okay, it's me." Vi called out softly, feeling Caitlyn's facial muscles twitch vaguely beneath her fingertips. Vi bit her lip hard, the impatience overwhelming her. "Come on, Cait, come back. Please come back." Caitlyn's lips parted tentatively, her mouth opening and closing hesitantly as though she were in pulling in breath for the first time in her life. Vi felt her eyes begin to well up once more when she saw Caitlyn's eyes begin to flutter open. It felt like years since Vi had seen the Sheriff's icy blue eyes; they seemed even more vivid than she could ever recall.
"Cupcake. You're back." Vi couldn't help the smile that was growing across her face as she saw Caitlyn begin to blink slowly and her pupils trained on the ceiling above. The rush of relief and emotion felt as though it would bring Vi to her knees. A few hoarse, strangled sounds came out of Caitlyn's throat, like she were trying to speak and having unbearable difficulty. After a few moments, a raspy voice, a voice Vi could barely recognize as Caitlyn's, croaked out of her chapped lips.
"Vi?"
The tears started rolling down Vi's cheeks and over her broad grin as she heard her name, the first word Caitlyn had spoken in nearly 6 weeks. Vi nodded her head emphatically, stroking Caitlyn's hair carefully.
"Yeah, Cait, it's me. It's Vi. I'm right here." Vi stared into Caitlyn's blue eyes, watching as they continued to stare blankly into the ceiling like they were trying to bore a hole.
"Vi," Caitlyn called out again, her voice so raspy it almost hurt Vi's ears to hear it. "Where are you?" Vi swiped a bandaged hand across her cheek, wiping away the salty water that had collected there.
"Here, Cait, I'm right here." Vi answered, pulling Caitlyn's frail looking arm up to touch her face. Caitlyn's head turned, her seemingly blank eyes staring straight through her. Caitlyn's slender fingers grazed the wet contours of Vi's cheek, and her dry mouth pulled into a confused frown.
"Vi," Caitlyn called out again, this time more strongly and with a rising panic. "Vi, where are you?" Her fingers pressed harder against Vi's cheekbone, the heart rate monitor in the background beginning to pick up in speed.
Vi's grin faltered.
So, I have no excuses for why this took so long, or for why this chapter feels so clunky and a bit misshapen. I would, however, like to say that I have been reinspired to continue this, and actually have an idea with where I want to take this. While I try my best to stay as scientifically accurate as possible (I am a psychology major, y'know), I am clearly not above dramatic displays. I hope that, despite the amount of time it took for me to get this to you, you guys enjoy this at least a bit. Thank you so much for the continued support!