Chapter 10

Sam

I was scared that we were asking too much from Cat, taking her out of the hospital this early, but I also knew that she wanted to come home. I just hope that I'm not hurting her in the long run here, and I hope that I don't do something stupid to make things worse. Through the three weeks that Cat was in the hospital, I have talked to Holly a lot about how I felt, but I have found myself talking to the last person I ever thought I would turn to. Freddie's mother. Surprisingly, she has helped me see through a lot of my own problems and has helped me see that I can help Cat if I don't try and fix her.

At first, I thought Mrs. Benson was just so happy to hear I'm gay, and that I would never want to be with Freddie, that she was happy to help me. But then Carly told me that Freddie lives with her now, in Italy. That had to go over like a fart in church.

We pulled up to the hospital to get Cat, and this big Barney Fife wannabe stopped us at the front desk and asked us what we wanted.

"We are here to pick up Caterina Valentine," Holly said, and handed over some paperwork she had. Then she stepped to the side and waited. I hovered near Holly's side, almost but not quite needing to take her hand. I was never a patient waiter. I finally clear my throat and look up at Holly.

"So we just wait here for her, then?" I ask her, but Kojak answered me.

"We don't let people up on the wards. So yes, you have to wait here," he said as he popped a sucker in his mouth.

"Yeah, sure, Kojak. Whatever," I said, and Holly gave me that mom look that tells me I should keep my mouth shut, but knows I won't. More time passes. The phone on the desk chimes once, inoffensively. I'm immediately offended by the mild noise. The guard reaches out and spoke into the headset quietly and hung up moments later.

"I'll be right back. I have to go get her," he said, rising to his feet and leaving. I tremble a moment and shove off from the wall where I had been leaning.

"Wow, I can't take this waiting. I'll be outside, having a smoke." I leave before Holly can scold me for smoking. I don't get it, she doesn't say anything to Tiffany, but she nags Jade and I all the time. I guess if Tiffany was around more, she would.

I was about done with my smoke when Holly came out with tears in her eyes. I ran to her side, hugging her, worried that something had happened to Cat. "What's wrong, Mom?" I asked, pulling away from her a little.

"We're bringing our Cat home today. I'm just so happy," she said, wiping her eyes with a tissue that appeared out of the depths of her purse like a magic trick. I tossed my cigarette butt into the can and let out a sigh, looking at my feet. I flicked my eyes up to stare at her through my long lashes and sighed again.

"I know, and I am happy also, but I have to admit, I'm a little scared that we're doing the wrong thing here. What if she isn't ready, or what if she stills sees her 'twin'? I mean, I should have paid closer attention to her. Or I should have made her talk to me or you. I would have made sure she got the help she needed. I could have dropped everything and been there more for her. How can I say this is the right move to make for Cat, and not just what I want to make me happy?" I said, folding my arms across my chest while pacing. I could feel my hair flying around my head. I whipped around to continue my pacing and Holly was right there, and she clapped her hands on my shoulders, rooting me into place.

"Sam, we can kill ourselves with the 'would, could, should of's,' but they will never change what has been done. All we can do is be there for Cat. Remember, there is a time for the 'what if's,' and a time for the 'will be's,' check your watch. No one says you have to have all the answers, but you have to stand strong enough to show her that you will hold her up while you help find them, and you're not alone in this. David and I will be with you all the way," Holly said.

I twisted out of her hold and took a few steps away. I finally turned back and faced Holly. "And you will be there to hold both of us up? To help both of us find the answers? If that's true, then who's holding you?" I was shocked at the quiver I heard in my voice. Was I so close to breaking myself? I shook my head slowly, leaving my face partially obscured behind my hair. Holly pushed my hair out of my face and cupped my cheeks.

"Your family." I blinked a few times and clapped my hands over hers. I smiled and we started to walk back up to the door when I stopped. "Speaking of family, my sister called to tell me she will be in town next week. I thought I could bring her by."

"I didn't know you had a sister," Holly said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, she's great. You're going to love her," I said, passing through the automatic sliding door and walking into the breezeway.

We get back up to the inner door just in time to see Cat and a nurse talking. The nurse handed Cat something that looked like a business card then Cat gave her a hug. As Cat walked out to us, she started to sing, making Holly and me jump. I looked to the nurse, and she was laughing, so the song Cat had picked must have meant something to them.

"Cat!" Holly cried with her arms opened, waiting for Cat to fall into them. "Oh, I have missed you," Holly said, taking Cat into a tight hug. Cat squeezed back, burying her face into Holly's shoulder. I watched for exactly two seconds before I spoke up.

"Hey, save some for me!" I took Cat from Holly and wrapped my arms around her waist and kissed her. I didn't care who was there, I wanted to show my girl how much I missed having her in my arms. As we broke, I turned and saw the nurse smiling at all of us. I got the funny feeling that this person was going to become someone very special in our lives. I gave her a small smile and a nod, then turned back to Holly and Cat. "So, Holly didn't know I had a sister," I tell her. Cat turned her gorgeous brown starburst eyes on me, wide and innocent, with a glimmer of mischief in them.

"Well, if you listen to Jade, then she's marrying one." We all laugh as we get into the car. Neither Cat nor I were in the front seat, instead snuggling together in the backseat while Holly drove.

"No, I was telling Holly that my sister will be here next week, and I wanted everyone to meet her," I explain to Cat, pulling her into my side.

"Yay! More twins," Cat claps, grinning. Holly's car swerved a little as she looked into the backseat, fixing my girlfriend with a fierce glare.

"That's not funny, Cat," Holly said sternly. Cat sat staring at Holly for a second, a puzzled look on her face a moment, before I saw understanding dawn in her eyes.

"But Mom, Sam's sister really is her twin. Her name is Melanie," Cat said, giggling.

"Oh. Crap, I better get more ham."

Tori

Jade and I arrived home at the same time as Mom with Sam and Cat. Jade got out of the car and gave Cat a hug as she too got out of Mom's car. They stood in the driveway talking. I stayed in the car for a few minutes reading over everything about the house in Jade's copy of the will. I looked up and saw Jade and Cat staring at me. I blinked a couple of time before getting out of Jade's car and walking up to them. "Hey," I said, walking pass them to my car and opened the backseat door.

"Is everything alright?" I heard Mom ask Jade.

"Yeah, she was fine," Jade said.

I slammed the door closed and walked back to them handing Cat a box wrapped with Hello Kitty wrapping paper. "I wanted to get you something, but I had a hell of a time finding this. I found it last week and drove up to Berkeley Monday to pick it up. I hope you like it." I gave Cat a small hug and stood back as she sat on Mom's car to open the gift.

"Oh my God, Tori, I can't believe you found these." She moved off of Mom's car, carried the box into the house and let out a loud gasp. "Tori where did you find all of these?" she asked, moving to the coffee table to look through the box more.

"What are they?" Mom asked looking over Cat's shoulder as well as Sam.

"There My Pretty Pony from Hasbro from 1981 and the first My Little Pony, also from Hasbro, when they renamed the pony line in 1983, still in their original packaging."

"I also have another gift for you in my room. I'll be right back." I ran up to Jade's and my room to get a box the same size as the one I gave her outside. This one was wrapped with old comics from an old Hollywood Sunday Paper. "I know you will love this. I have been collecting them all year for you."

Cat opened the box and squealed, "Oh Tori, this is so wonderful!" with tears in her eyes. She moved to the kitchen table with both boxes, and started taking out the packaged toys. She set each one down carefully, and each toy had its own spot on the table.

"What are they?" Sam asked, moving to the table sitting across from Cat. When she reached to pick one up, Cat gave her hand a look until Sam drew it back without touching anything. When she did, Cat finally answered her question.

"They're the first run of Strawberry Shortcake from American Greeting, 1979, and the first run of the Smurfs from Dupuis, 1958, all in their original packaging. Oh Tori, all of these had to have cost a small fortune," she said, getting up and giving me a hug.

I held her tight in my arms. "Do you like them?" I asked her. She dug into my back, squeezing me so tight that I felt momentarily light headed.

"Yes Tori, I love them and I know the perfect place to put them," she said into my shoulder. I flexed just a little bit, and she let up her death grip on me, letting me breathe again.

"Then they were worth every penny, because they made you happy," I said, kissing her on the top of her head.

"Tori has been giving Cat the new generation of these toys for her birthdays, Christmas, and Yay! Day. But she has been working very hard to find the vintage toys. I think she has looked in every country on all seven contents," Jade told Sam. The blonde looked suitably impressed with the work that Tori had done.

"Okay, time to start working on dinner. Everyone else will be here shortly." I looked at Jade and nodded my head to Mom. Jade moved over toward the kitchen, and I started to follow when Cat grabbed my wrist.

"Do you think I can have some time by myself?" Cat asked. Before I could answer, Mom walked over and smiled down at Cat.

"Sure, I guess, if that's what you need, dear," Mom said, and Cat gathered her things and moved into Dad's office.

I helped the rest work on dinner for about ten minutes, then I slipped away to go check on Cat. When I opened the door to the office I found Cat at the desk, writing in a notebook. "Writing down everything that happened today?" I asked as I sat in one of the chairs Dad has in front of his desk.

"No, I'm writing down the item numbers and description of the toys. Then I'm adding the number of the Certificate of Authenticity so I can put them in my files at home," Cat said as she kept writing.

"You have a file of all of the toys that are worth something? What do you do with it?" I asked getting up and walking around the desk. I looked down at the notebook page. Cat had been busy since we started working on dinner. It was full of many details and numbers. I look back at her, hoping she'd explain. Which she did.

"You see in this case for every toy there is a shelf life. Which simply means they are sold in stores for only so long before the next run comes out. After this shelf life, the toy will start to become worth money by a 3% worth a year. The rarest and harder to find items jump up to anywhere to a 7%-20% worth a year. Then you have your collector's items, like Star Wars and Star Trek items, that go by movies and years they were made. Toys in the Star Wars franchise will have special action figures that come out between the movies and before the new films. There are only a handful made so their net worth could be on the upper side of 25-30% worth a year and this is all auction pricing. These toys like the Smurfs are from the first run and could bring an asking price of $500.00-$1,500.00 a piece at auction. From the first Star Wars movie 'A New Hope' that opened in 1977, I have The Early Bird Certificate Package still intact, including the pull out flyer, and let me tell you, to have one of those in mint condition is like having the Holy Grail," Cat gushed, flipping over another package to get the info off of it.

"So that Early Bird thing could be worth like one or two hundred dollars?" I asked, pulling my chair around to sit and listen to Cat as she told me about this world she loved so much.

"No dear, the Early Bird Certificate Package is worth thousands," she told me with a smile. I could only stare at her for a moment, for the first time truly understanding how far some collectors will go for their passion. Finally, I blurt out the first question that I can think of just to keep the conversation going.

"What is your rarest toy?" I ask.

"I have an original Superman Wooden 12" Action Figure. It was released in 1940 by Ideal. It originally sold for 49₵, now is worth $29,000.00. This is my favorite action figure, not only for the money it is worth, but because it was one of the things that my Grandfather gave me. He also gave me a signed Jackie Robinson baseball from the 1955 World Series. He said he waited in the longest line just to get him to sign this ball that my Grandfather caught at the game. It is worth $20,000.00 at auction," she said with a faint grin.

"I'm impressed Cat. I never knew you were into this stuff. I mean, I knew you loved toys, but I didn't know you were into this side of things. It is really interesting, and the history of these toys are so cool." I wanted to see if she was doing alright, and I can see that she is doing just fine.

"Hey Tori, do you think I can use your computer? I want to look up some things on these toys."

"Sure, I'll be right back." I walked over to open the door when Cat stopped me. "Hey, I'll show you some sites where you can find some things for Jade. I know she'll like them." I smiled and ran out of the office to get my computer.

I returned with my computer. "So, where do we start?" I asked, sitting back down next to her.

"Well, first I want to show you this site. It's Todd McFarlane's line of figures that are really cool. Jade has the Faces of Madness, but I know that she always wanted to get the rest of the series. There are four all together, she still needs the Monster Play Sets, Twisted Land of Oz, and the Twisted Fairytales. She might even like to have the Walking Dead and Game of Throne series. If you look through here you can find more that she might like."

I took my time, looking through the site and writing down everything that I thought Jade might like. I also ordered the Monster series for her. I thought it would be a good home warming gift from me, after we move to the new house.

Cat

I liked spending time with Tori and showing her everything about the collections. At first, I thought she was just trying to find a way to talk to me, but then she was really into this. She even got Jade's computer, so we both had one to look these collections up. I like to show what I know, and share my love for these toys, but I didn't think anyone would really care. Sure, Sam sees everything I have out on display and in our room, but I didn't think she would care about this side of it. But Tori is really into this. She isn't just asking questions, she is also taking notes on how to find rare toys. "I have a feeling that Sam and I better get really good jobs so we can get a bigger place," I said, pulling Tori out of her search. She leaned back in the chair and stretched her back as she spoke to me.

"Why would you need a bigger place?" Tori asked with a small groan.

"Well, now that you are into this, and are now learning all of the tricks of the trade, I have a feeling that I will be getting a lot more to collect," I said with a sunny smile.

"Maybe, but I might be just looking at things to put in Jade and my new house," Tori told me, looking at the computer again.

"You two found a house already?" I asked, surprised.

"No, Jade received her Grandfather's house in the Will today. We went and looked at it before we came home. Cat, that place is like a small country," she said with a look of fear. "I mean, what the hell are we going to do with that big of a place and just the two of us living there?" She stopped her search and turned to me.

"I don't know Tor. I can't help you on that one. Jade's Grandfather was her favorite person in the whole world, until she met you, that is. She may act like she didn't know him, or that she didn't remember him, but that was because her father made her stop seeing him when we were in the fifth grade, I think. She said it was the hardest thing she ever had to do, letting him go. Now she gets to live in the house we had so much fun at. After we met Beck and Robbie they would come to Jade's Grandfather's house with us. Then when her ass of a father told her that she couldn't see him anymore, she was crushed. She even mourned him like he had died that day," I told her, scowling at the memory. Tori looked sad, and I wasn't sure if it was because I told her how sad Jade was, or that Jade didn't tell her. I felt like I was crossing a line. I was happy for Jade that he left her the house, but I know she would give anything to have the time her father took from her back.

"It's hard for me sometimes. You all had this friendship before I met you. You and Jade grew up together, and you guys have known Robbie and Beck much longer and have been best friends for so long. Sometimes I feel like an outsider looking in," she said, closing Jade's computer. She sat back in her chair and looked out the window. I snorted in amusement, drawing her gaze back from the window.

"What?! Best friends? Oh Tori, I hated Beck when we first met him, and Robbie was this dork that followed us around, trying to get us to play with him. It was Jade that became friends with them first. She would get so mad at me when I would pick on Robbie, and she hated the way I would push Beck away. I just didn't want to lose the only family I had with Jade, and I thought the boys were going to take her away," I told her. I closed her computer and sat back, watching her.

"But they didn't take her away, and then you all became friends." I was nodding before she even finished talking.

"Sure, but it wasn't until we met Andre that I really felt like I could let myself like them. Then Jade and Beck started dating, and everything got really weird after that," I told her with a sad smile. "My birth parents had taken me to the doctor to get me tested, and we found out that I was not a good match for my brother. My birth father had told me the day that they found out that I wasn't a match that he had no other use for me." I looked at my hands and picked at my fingers. "I had started to stay with my Nana, and after a few months of me getting really depressed about not being wanted, she told me the truth. It turns out that my birth mother had an affair, and I am the product of that affair. She had tried to play me off as if I was her husband's, but it just wasn't the case. So that is just another reason that I'm not wanted. Long story short, my mother chose the men in the family over me." I looked up at Tori to see a very disgusted look on her face. I saw it so often when I was here and talking about my birth family that I was starting to believe it, deep down. I knew intellectually that they were horrified and disgusted by my birth family's actions toward me. Even still, I didn't believe it, down at the bottom of my heart. But I was beginning to. The care and warmth everyone showed made me feel happy.

"I love you, and I am so proud to call you my sister, Cat Vega." She leaned forward and took me into her arms and kissed me on the top of my head. "I know after the accident, things just didn't go right, and somehow you were left out in the cold with us. But Cat, I never meant to hurt you, I really didn't," Tori told me.

"I know that, at least now I do. And I know that you didn't go out of your way to hurt me. I mean, did you plan to be on that road that night? Did you plan to have Jade hit us head-on, almost killing us?" I asked, smiling at her.

"Of course not. The plan was to have a UFO land then have Jade hit us, but to get those things to cooperate is like pulling teeth," Tori gave a look that told me that I was getting too serious.

I gave her a small smile and walked to the door. "I think we should get out there," I said, pointing to the door. "The rest of the family will be here soon." We went into the living room to join the others waiting for the rest of the family.