A/N: LAST CHAPTER ALERT! Putting out this last chapter, it was kind of tough, but my three reviewers - Demi909Lovato, MariaLuvsYew, Cupcake4561 - boosted my update. I finished a whole story in a few months time! I hope you guys enjoy this one, it was absolutely fantastic to write and solved everything all into one. Enjoy!
Chapter 11: Christmas Day, Pt. 2
"So what do the Oliver's usually do the rest of Christmas?"
I smile, telling Cat that we'd be going to one of my aunts' houses for dinner and festivities, and she asks me, "So, what time will you be leaving, since I'll need to be going back home?"
I immediately shake my head, n-o. "Cat, you're coming with me. There's no way you're going to be alone on Christmas. Plain and simple.
While Cat showers and gets ready, I sit and talk to my parents, telling them how thankful I am for them and what they've done for Cat. They insist that everyone should have Christmas, and that Cat deserves it more than anyone. My dad spends moments slandering her dad while my mom keeps pondering on the fact why her mother didn't just take Cat with her. I stop them midway and tell them that if my plans were going to be in action, we have to leave my aunts early. My dad kind of grumbles at it, but I look at the time and then realize that after Cat's done getting ready and so am I, we have enough time to go there and get back before we go to my aunts.
"Why don't you go there and after, meet us at your Aunts?" I nod, already sprinting up the stairs to get ready.
"Beck!" Cat squeals, as I almost knock her over.
I steady her, and automatically my stomach sinks.
Wearing just a camisole and jeans, there are bruises everywhere. I thought he only got to her a few times?
Why would someone want to damage something so beautiful? Especially their own flesh and blood?
"Cat," I start to say something about her injuries, but stop myself. "We need to go do something before we go to my aunts, can you be ready in ten?"
She knows I've been eyeing her damages, immediately putting on the sweater that was in her hands on, anxiously tugging it over her skin.
"S-sorry Beck. I didn't want you to see those. I'm thinking of covering them all up in the stickers that were in my stocking!" Despite the obvious pain, this girl has such high spirits that I don't want to ruin her good day.
"Okay, well I'm going to jump into the shower and then we're going to go. Be ready in ten!"
By the time we're in the car, Cat is gushing about how much she loves everything she got and she likes that I wore her jacket and she thinks its silly how many pictures my mom took and that my dad was actually good at trying to convince her Santa was real and she was a little nervous she'd scare off my relatives.
There's no way the last part could be true; everyone was terrified of Jade, Cat is like an angel in comparison.
"Where are we going first?" She notices that we're going in town, and I'm curious if she's picked up on exactly the direction I've taken.
"Someplace." The ambiguity in my voice just makes her more and more intrigued.
When we pull onto the street that her brother's jail is on, I slowed down to turn and she gasps.
"You have family in here too?"
I can't help but laugh, typical Cat to not put two and two together.
"I don't have family in here, dear. But you do." I park, turn off the car, unlock my seatbelt and hand her a visitor's pass.
"Really?"
"Come on. I know it's not much, but it is Christmas and I know that your brother wouldn't want you sad. I talked to the prison and visitation for Christmas has extended hours, in the kitchen with a bit more security."
"I, I can't even-" She's struggling for words, but I just smile and get out of the car, beckoning her to follow.
We pass through the gate guards and then pass through security guards.
When we get to the kitchen, we sit at a table, and guards bring out Cat's brother, Alex Valentine.
When Cat sees him, she immediately has tears streaming down her face and runs up and hugs him, while he starts crying at the sight of her. I even get a bit teary eyed.
This guy in front of me looks to be in his twenties, aside from a young looking face. He has Cat's mannerisms, and her eyes.
When they're finally done with their greetings, Alex shakes my hand and sits across from me.
"I don't think I can thank you enough for bringing Cat here." He sounds strong, although I can tell is just an innocent man in a guilty man's position.
Cat starts talking up a storm about how I was Cat's secret Santa, how I made Christmas like she was young again, how my parents are so sweet and how she received fantastic gifts and how we're eating at my relatives hosue tonight for dinner.
Alex encourages Cat to tell him more detail of everything, possibly to keep her talking rather than ask how he is.
"I miss you big brother. Are you doing okay here? I feel like I should volunteer and paint the walls with cupcake pictures."
He smiles, obviously expecting this question.
"I'm okay as I can be in jail. I made friends with a twenty one year old that got caught stealing. Thing is, he's laid off from his job and he was trying to get Christmas gifts for his two year old. He regrets stealing, but even I know that this shouldn't've been punished this far."
I glanced over and noticed Cat was staring off into space. My guess was that as soon as she heard the word "daughter".
"Hey, Cat? Can you do us a favor and go up & grab some Christmas cookies?" I ask, motioning to a line within the kitchen, with a plethora of Christmas foods.
She snaps out of it as soon as I start to speak. "Oh! Kay kay!"
She skipped away, and I finally had a chance to talk to Alex alone.
"So how is Cat really doing?" He's curious, I sense he knows things aren't ideal.
"It's been a bit of a rollercoaster…" I say, unsure of how to approach it.
"My sister might have her moments, but walking into my dad hitting her was completely… unreal. My little sister. She doesn't even weigh a hundred pounds!"
I told him I understood, that if I was in the same situation I'd do the same as him. I reluctantly told him more. "Since your mom has gone to live with your grandma… Cat and your dad have been alone. I've been trying to keep her safe as much as possible."
"Has he hit her again?"
Instead of saying yes, I just give him a look, Cat's approaching with a tray of sweets, and instead of turning the mood sour, we take the rest of the time eating and talking and laughing, until visiting hours are nearly over.
"Alright Kitty Cat. I want you to stay safe. My trail is in 12 days. I'll be strong if you'll be strong if you'll be strong, okay?" They hug each other tight and after he kisses her forehead, he says to her, "hey, don't go dying your hair again. It's less than two weeks and we might be together again."
A few more tears slip out of her eyes. "I'm so so so so sorry! This is my entire fault! If I didn't make him mad…" Cat begins blaming herself all over again, my heart sinks.
"Stop it. This is not your fault. You need to realize that. This was his fault and his fault only. He has no right to treat anyone like that, especially you. It's going to be okay, I promise."
"I promise I'll take care of you, Cat. He's not going to lay his hands on you ever again if I can help it."
She's sniffling now, but nodding in affirmation.
She says goodbye once again, and I tell him I'm going to take care of Cat; he smiles and tells me he knows I will.
When Cat and I get out to my car, she's silent. I attempt to make small talk 'til we get there, putting on a Christmas radio station and asking her questions about if she enjoyed seeing Alex.
"He said he might get out in twelve days." After three wordless answers, this is the first to come from her mouth.
"Yeah that's great, I can't wait for you to welcome him home!" I say with a smile.
But when I glance over, she's not smiling.
"He said might. Which might mean he might not."
"Don't think like that. There isn't a case to prosecute him. He just needs to plead self defense…" I start to tell her that she should take the stand when it comes to it, but I don't know if she'd be strong enough to testify against her father.
"I'm scared Beck. I can't tell what is going to happen from one day to the next."
I don't want her feeling hopeless like this. "It's all going to be okay." I feel pathetic in saying that; it hardly conveyed how I feel.
"How can you promise that? My dad already put him in prison! My own brother, his own son, and the one whose been trying to save me from pain! If that can happen, what can't? My mother doesn't care about me either, she saw exactly what was going on and just left." Her tone no longer is upset; desperation and hopelessness is in its place.
"Hey! Look at me. I'm NEVER going to leave you."
"How can you be so sure?"
"I will spend every single second with you if you need it."
She nods, wiping away stray tears.
We get to my cousins house, and she's nervous all over again. A good nervous, which makes me hopeful everything will continue to be okay.
Opening her door, I help her out of the car and tell her that she'll be fine, that my family will love her.
As we enter, right away we are bombarded with my family welcoming us. My aunt B, the one who's house this is, takes Cat right away and hugs her. "My, what a wonderful Christmas spirit you have! I love your hair!"
Finally calm, Cat begins to talk and talk, more and more of my family members listen in.
My family on my dad's side is quite big – he was one of five and majority of my aunts and uncles decided to have a lot of children. I have cousins from age 30 to 1 ½.
One of them, Nora, is standing behind my uncle George, staring at Cat intently.
I smile, understanding. She might be eleven, but her dream is to be a hairstylist. She's owned multiple hairstyling computer games and has her own slew of Barbie heads that she teases and cuts and colors until they are irreversibly damaged.
Cat, with her bright red hair and dye dipped green ends is like her idol.
When we go through and get food, I purposely sit at one of the kids' tables just so we could mingle with the younger generation.
"Hi!" Aeden, Calliope, Matty and Ryder are sitting at our table, with Nora sitting directly next to Cat and one of my cousins – Seth, who's a few months younger than me – sits next to me and talks about sports.
Cat and I spend the rest of the time talking to everyone. After dinner, we play Uno attack, race around a hot wheels track and Cat gets shadowed in her every movement from Nora.
After I lost in another game of hide and seek, Ryder drops the bomb.
"Cat, how come you're here and not with your family?" His six-year-old brain can't process it and I nearly jump in with an answer of avoidance.
"Because, your family is so much fun!" She squeals, tagging him and yelling, "you're it!"
When majority of the kids were passed out exhausted and half of the adults were drunk off of Christmas spirits, we decide to get going.
On our way back, Cat and I decide to play a game where we count Christmas lights on each side of the street. After we get into a playful argument about whether or not a lit up snowman counts as a Christmas decoration, Cat tells me we need to turn and go to her house.
"Uh, do you have to?"
She smiles, fear in her eyes but a steady voice, saying "not going there would be like putting a unicorn in a roller rink." Which I think means it's the elephant in the room.
"I'll make you a deal. We go to your house, but if we do, you stay at my place tonight."
She agrees, and I just can't shake the uneasy feeling of going back to the terrible place.
I just turn up the Christmas music a little louder, and we sing along going down her road until all of a sudden she shouts,
"Hey! There's a present on my doorstep!"
This girl must have spectacular eyesight, because it takes me a few seconds to see it.
Propped up against the door, there lies a bright green package with red ribbon and a curly red and green bow.
"Maybe it's for me! Maybe it's from someone from my family! Maybe it's from my mom!" I'd love to say yes, but I worry she's getting her hopes up.
I follow her out of the car; happy that Cat is distracted enough to not realize her father is home.
"It's to me!" The package has a gift tag that says, "To: Cat" but no evidence as to who the mysterious person is. To cat, this makes it all the more intriguing. She tears open the paper and is excited to see what lies inside.
Cat pulls out a pair of sweatpants with bright colored cupcakes all over them, and a furry hat – a cat, of course – that has mitten paws attached to it.
"Lookit, Beck! I'm Cat in a hat!" She giggles.
As she paws me with her faux mittens, I notice that there's a piece of paper folded up to be as big as a receipt.
Cat,
I apologize for everything that's happened lately, I know you don't deserve it. I messed up, and I don't want you to be afraid of me or hate me any longer. You are my friend, so I care about you, and if you ever want to talk to me or come hang out, just let me know. Hope you accept these Christmas gifts, but don't expect me to grovel the next time I see you
P.s. – tell Beck I overreacted, and I promise to behave from now on whenever I see things.
P.s.s. – try not to wear these things around me too much, my scissors might find a liking to them.
And just like that, I found out Jade does have a conscience.
I carried the box for Cat as she took a key and entered the house; it was eerily quiet.
"Okay," I say in a hushed tone, "go up to your room and get everything you can think of. Pack anything you think is important and you think you need. I'll be waiting. Call me if you need help carrying anything." Hurry, I said mentally. This house was like a ticking time bomb, but I don't want to scare her by rushing her.
Cat takes a second to look at me strangely, and I know that she's wondering why she's taking so much for one night.
After a few minutes, I take a seat on a chair in the foyer, and that's when I hear it. Heavy footsteps.
Then, a voice. "Now you decide to come home." Definitely not Cat.
I sprint up the steps gingerly, careful not to make noise, not to disturb their conversation.
"S-sorry daddy, I was out doing Christmas stuff." She's stammering, nervous.
"Christmas?" He spat, "You think that your father should be alone on Christmas?"
Her tone after turns to guilt, shame. "N-no. I thought you wouldn't be here."
"You thought? You know, I believed that these doctors would fix your mental handicaps. Obviously, you're a lost cause."
"I'm sorry! I was wrong!" She's pleading now, begging him to accept her apology.
"Damn right you were wrong. What the hell are you doing? Packing? You think you can just leave? Quit acting like a slut, just like your mother. To hell with her. To hell with the both of you!"
And that's when I hear it.
Bam.
I rush into the room right as Cat's stumbling back and raising her hand to the now swollen cheek.
"Don't you dare touch her!" I yell at him, stepping in front of her to protect her.
"Who the hell are you?" His eyes narrow at me, skeptical.
"I'm Cat's friend. She's staying with me." I look him square in the eye, no fear.
He starts to laugh. "Kid, do yourself a favor and quit now. This girl is defected."
"This girl is your daughter! She has loved you and looked up to you all of her life. You're hurting her, and I'm not going to let that happen."
He pulls her away from me and twists her arm. "She's mine. You can go home now."
Mr. Valentine expects me to give up on her. I wanted to hit him so badly, to take Jade's scissors to him…
"NO. She's coming home with me." I won't back down. He can hurt me all he wants, but Cat will never deserve it. I look over at Cat, and she's grimacing from how tight her father holds her wrist. "Let her go!"
"What are you going to do about it?"
"Call the police." His eyes widen, until he lets the words settle – gaining a smirk.
"You'd think they'd believe you? Especially when I tell them that you're covering up your own actions?" My own actions? … he'd try and pin me for his abuse? Just like he did with Alex. My mind is spinning.
"I will not let you hurt this beautiful girl any longer. Don't keep her here to hurt her."
He sneers at the mere idea of letting her go.
"She's my daughter. I decide what's best for her."
Tears are streaming down her face, but she remains silent.
"I decide where she sleeps, I decide what she eats. I decide where she goes; I decide what her punishments are. I raised her, I paid countless money to doctors and councilors and therapists. She needs to know her place and quit acting like a child!"
"Dad…" Cat whimpers quietly.
Mr. Valentine laughs, loosens his grip on her wrist and instead grabs her by the shoulders and digs his nails in.
"What, Cat? Go ahead and speak. Your lovely father would like to hear what you have to say."
She shifts her eyes between the two of us, saying, "please. Just please, let me go." She looks at him gravely, in a sense torn.
He realizes that what she's saying and his face begins to redden.
"Cat!" I yell, but her father is too quick. At the same time, he pushes her forcefully and trips her; she goes flying head first into the floorboards.
"You bastard! That's your daughter!" I swear at him, aggressively. I rush over to her; she's cringing – there's blood oozing from a cut on her head and her hip is bruising, a minor cut bleeding.
I gather up her bags and pick her up too. I feel no weight of everything, carefully placing the box from Jade in her hands and I rush out, adrenalin pumping through my veins as we hurry into the car.
"Cat!" I yell as I burn out of the driveway.
"Mmmhm?" She murmurs
"Are you okay? What hurts the most? CAT!" I keep yelling at her, keeping her alert so she won't fall asleep if she has a concussion.
"I'm fine Beck, quit yelling. My head kind of hurts and my wrist is really sore." I look at her, not believing it's that minor, but instead of going straight to the hospital, we go back to my house.
I carry her inside, leaving everything else in the car.
"Beck, I can walk." She says meekishly, and I ignore that.
"Hello? Mom? Dad!" I say, eagerly, hoping they would hear my pleas without having to go looking for them. I gently set Cat down on the couch overly examining her again and again.
My dad comes into the room first, sees Cat and rushes to her side, calling my mom again, which comes rushing in.
"What happened?" they demand, fearful and confused.
"We went back to Cat's house to get her stuff and her dad intercepted us." My blood is boiling, and I'm angry at myself for not hitting him, not strangling him, not doing better to protect her.
My mom goes to get a first aid kit, while my dad looks at me, asking if I hurt him. "No." I say, visibly ashamed of myself.
He sighs, saying, "Beck, that's a good thing. He can't retaliate legally if you didn't touch him."
I look to Cat and back to my dad. "He says that if I try to charge him with assault against her, he'll pin it on me. He put Cat's brother in jail, he thinks he will to me too."
He looks at me sternly, and seriously says, "That will not happen. Never."
My mom comes back, taking icepacks to her wrist and cheek, asking Cat if she can clean the wound on her head; if it's as deep as she thinks, Cat might need stitches.
Cat gives me a horrified look, scared of hospitals and more pain.
I kneel down to her side, taking her uninjured hand. "Shh, Cat, it's okay. I'm here. My parents are here. No more monsters, okay? We're the good guys."
She squeezes my hand hard as my mom cleans the cut with alcohol, also cleaning the one on her hip and other scratches so they won't get infected.
"Stitches." My mom nods at me, and Cat's eyes get wide.
My dad comes over to her, aiming to calm her down. "Listen. I was in the army for 27 years and I went overseas for 5 tours of duties. I know how to put in stitches here, if you would rather do that instead of going to a hospital." The idea calms her, and she nods with a quiet, "yes, please."
I make her look at me, straight in the eyes, and not look away. I tell her to squeeze my hand tight as she wants. She does.
After, I go and get her some Christmas cookies, a blanket, and we curl up together across from the fire in the fireplace.
"Listen, Cat. I want you to do something for me."
"Anything, Beck! You're my hero!" She smiles kindly.
"I want you to stay here. Live here, in my old room upstairs. My parents are already on board; it's all your call. If you don't want to stay here you could stay at Tori's or Jade's – just as long as you don't go back to that house. Never go there alone." I feel like I'm pleading at this point, but to be honest, I don't have to sway it.
"Of course. I'd love to stay here. I like your family." There's a little bit of pain in her voice, and I shake my head.
"Cat, you're pretty much a part of this family now." She hugs me – gingerly, cautious as to not hit any more of her injuries.
And she smiles.
And she takes me in her arms,
And she holds me tight,
And she doesn't let go, no, not until I remember.
"Cat, can you come to the kitchen with me for a second?"
She nods, slowly getting up and following me. I stop in the entrance, and grin childishly.
"What?"
I look up, and she follows my eyes.
Mistletoe.
"Beck! That's mistletoe!"
I nod, but I pull her further into the kitchen.
She's confused, and a little disappointed.
"Cat, I wanted you to see that. Because I don't want you to think I'm going to do this for any other reason other than for me."
"Do what-" She begins to ask.
I kiss her.
And she kisses back.
CBCBCBCBC
Epilogue
Following the events of Christmas day, Cat's been staying at our house ever since. We went to the police station – my parents, Cat and I – and took out a restraining order against Bill Valentine. I wanted to make sure that man would never touch my Cat ever again. Surprising us all, Cat spoke up about the abuse – about how Alex was defending her and he had gone on another rampage, showing the officers her bruises and cuts, begging them to not listen if her father said that it was Beck that did it.
After that, we were at the station for a long time after… but with good results. The sheriff came and talked to us, telling us how he ordered for an immediate release of Alex, and an order for arrest of Bill Valentine. He told Cat how brave she was for coming to us about it, and she cried and hugged him. He gave her a sticker and she immediately was happy.
Not even twenty minutes after we were home, the station called and said that they had Mr. Valentine in custody and were booking him now.
Alex moved out into his own apartment – he always comes over to the house to visit us, so thankful for what we've done for Cat.
As far as Cat and I go, we're not in a relationship just yet. Cat and Jade are reforming their friendship, and I don't want to jump into something when neither of us is ready – her with the family trauma and me just jumping out of one relationship to the next.
…But it's not like I don't sneak into her room and make sure there are no monsters around. I may crawl into bed with her and fall asleep holding her. We might sneak kisses here and there, and maybe hold hands under the table.
And she is mine, and I am hers, and nothing will change that.
A/N: Let me know how you liked this?
_iHearU