The next day in Palermo Sicilia, Italy
"welcome Catarina, your medical room is clean and safe, you will go through some tests to confirm and update your medical record, your stay here will be a few years, your parents want to get to the core of your trauma, your issues, they don't believe American doctors will understand" says Doctor Isabelle Russo
"I haven't been here since I was TWO years old, why do my parents trust the doctors here over the ones I grew up with" asks Cat
"because the eye condition you have, the flickering you described having during your meltdown, it is known to be linked to the water you drank here till you left, you drank the remnants of a virus that left people blind and have not been able to regain vision, a thousand people were susceptible to the virus and were blinded, those who drank the water after the virus had seemingly faded away got flashes just like you described, children were especially affected" says Doctor Russo
"is there anyway to fix it, it's been happening constantly ever since" asks Cat
"there is no cure, the government outlawed searching for one after a researcher caused the death of fifty teens trying to cure it last year, even if we could have a cure it's an optical nerve thing, very dangerous to try and fix, you know clots and stuff" says Doctor Russo
"so I'm going to live like this forever, can I at least video call my friends while I'm in here" asks Cat
"you are limited to two outbound calls per day and zero incoming, texting however is allowed, anyone in particular you want to call" asks Doctor Russo understanding Cat's wants
"my friends in LA, Tori Vega and Jade West specialically… grrr this eye thing is making me mess up word things" says Cat upset
"it can be distracting yes I agree, my own daughter Alex has the same thing, Jade or more precisely Jadelyn West and her family are banned from coming to Sicilia or mainland Italy, Tori Vega on the other hand has direct connection to the leadership in Spain" says Doctor Russo
"how do you know so much about them" asks Cat getting scared
"that's not important, the main issue is the facility doesn't allow video calls outside the EU, their best chance is getting to France or Spain to video call you" says Doctor Russo
"why not" asks Cat
"a patient here killed herself after someone she thought loved her in Russia convinced her to will everything to him, she had an inheritance worth about ten million dollars, when she died his lawyer forcefully took it from her family and legally they didn't have a choice, she was convinced they'd be together, her parents tried to tell her the truth but when they told her they wouldn't let him have her money is when she ended her life, she was doing so good too, anyway the people who run this place mean business, all contacts are vetted and verified, your texts will be monitored as will your video calls" says Doctor Russo
"my friends won't travel to the EU to video chat me, they barely get along as it is, there is no way they'd sit together on a plane for the trip just to video chat me, just forget I asked that, get me to my room so I can cry" says Cat
"in a bit, do you have no faith in your friends Catarina" asks Doctor Russo
"all my friends ever do is fight, usually complaining about me, I'm the hyper obnoxious friend Doctor Russo, they won't care I'm gone, nobody does that for me, maybe Jade but she didn't exactly seem very receptive to caring about me at all when I last talked to her" says Cat
Meanwhile at Beck's
"how are you feeling Tori" asks Beck
"maybe a little better, I'm still very confused about me being autistic, it doesn't make sense to me, they said I have clear obsessions, I have random hobbies and I can't follow others rules, that I somehow have to insert myself into any situation, is that really who I am, is that why Cat went crazy, am I the problem" says Tori
"that does sound like you yes, you hated feeling left out, once you had an established friend group you basically insisted to be involved in everything, on another note how many of how many of our adventures with Sikowitz would be considered illegal or life threatening, also Cat breaking could have happened at any time to any of us, we weren't exactly soft on her, we pushed her hard to be like us, we likely all played a part in her breaking Tori, it's not a you problem, it's an us problem" says Beck
"do you think Sadie really likes me, that dinner last night, we went to her work, she was our waitress, she stared at me" asks Tori
"I'm not sure, none of us really understand Sadie, before the ballerina thing none of us really knew she existed" says Jade as Tori's phone goes off and she sees its Trina
"random question, how much is a flight to Sicily" asks Tori
"a couple hundred why, you don't have the money, you said yesterday your dad's health insurance premium just went through the roof" asks Jade
"it did, however Trina said she got money to go over there, something about communication lines or something, there is no way she lands in Sicily right" says Tori nervous
"Trina has done some serious growth Tori, your dad and mine are friends, it wouldn't surprise me if he paid for her trip, I've read that some Italian mental health wards had disallowed communications beyond the EU in fear of exploitation, apparently this girl was made to believe this Russian or whatever loved them and stole some money or something, most likely my dad made an agreement to let Trina make videos with Cat to send to us" says Jade
With Trina on the plane
"man I hope this works, man I'm so nervous I'm talking to myself, you sure I'm allowed to just walk in Mr. West" asks Trina on a video call with Jade's father
"I talked to the head doctor myself, her name is Lucy Ricci, Cat's older cousin Cassandra is meeting you at the airport, the board will say Miss Vega on it" says Andrew West
"so what's my job" asks Trina
"you are the connection between Cat and her friends here in LA, you are to make videos with Cat, answering their questions, send them to Jade" says Andrew
"and I'm allowed to do that, it doesn't make sense, why didn't they just treat her in California" asks Trina
"Cat has an eye condition, before she moved to LA from Sicily with her family when she was two she'd been drinking infected water, nobody knew the problem existed at the time, her vision goes from color to black and white and back again, it tends to activate at random ages, the condition originated in Sicily after a viral outbreak that had been dealt with, Cat's parents believe only the doctors there will treat it as a real symptom and not just some imaginary symptom, Erica strobe syndrome it's called, named after the first known victim" says Andrew
"isn't that condition a ticking time bomb for blindness" asks Trina as the plane takes off
"that's the worry here Trina, the issue is the now former relationship between Cat and Tori is what's known as proxy love syndrome, love but not love, Cat loves Jade but it scares her to bits, Erica strobe syndrome is an optic nerve disease, however it plays with the brains' connection to reality by essentially lying to the brain about what the eyes see, making it seem in some instances like everyone is frozen or in places not possible at times, let's put it this way, imagine suddenly seeing everyone walking on walls or the ceiling or say walking on their heads, it can be very disorienting especially when it first presents, it's most likely what caused Cat's freak-out that day, anyway I have work to do, let me know when you land" says Andrew
"will do" says Trina ending the call
At the airport
"oh great my bags got ruined" groans Trina picking up her slightly damaged luggage and heads to the doors
"mi devi Miss Vega" asks Cassandra as she walks over to Trina
"Non parlo bene l'italiano, English please" says Trina
"ooh yes of course, my apologies, are you the Miss Vega that Mr. West spoke of" asks Cassandra
"yes I am, I'm here to be the communication link between Cat and her friends" says Trina
"great follow me" says Cassandra
At the facility
"as promised I'm here" says Trina
"ahh Miss Vega, yes thank you for coming here, she misses her friends, follow me go her room" says Doctor Lucy Ricci
5 minutes later as Cat looks up at Trina walking in the room
"hello Trina, I apologize for not looking directly at you, my eyes are having problems" says Cat
"so I hear, anyway is it ok if I take video and get ready to ask a few questions" says Trina
"not right now, I just want someone to hug right now, can we please do that later" asks Cat
"sure, can I just ask you one question please, then you can hug me all you want for as long as you want" says Trina
"ok, what's the question" asks Cat closing her eyes
"did you love my sister I'd never seen her that happy, she feels like a failure, that she's the reason you had that meltdown" asks Trina
"I wanted to, I love Jade but she's with Beck, Tori's kissed me three months ago after our normal pillow fight before heading to bed at the sleepover, I thought I felt something like love, I don't know if I'll ever know if it was real love or just wishful thinking, as for my meltdown it wasn't her fault, it was my brain's fault, it decided that was the perfect moment to let my eye disorder run rampant, I was disoriented" says Cat
"what did it look like" asks Trina hugging Cat tight
"her body looked like it was melting or something, like she was made of wax and had been left in the sun, Beck then walked over and the top half of Tori was on the floor still talking while her legs just walked around in circles, I couldn't make sense of anything, I have no Idea what I said or what anyone was saying, before I knew it I was at home, as if time didn't exist at all" says Cat
"you were screaming 'CALL AN ABC TORI'S DYING' we eventually realized you meant ambulance and called one for you, it scared everyone, you're cherished at Hollywood arts Cat, as much as your perkiness and extreme hyper episodes annoyed people it didn't stop us from realizing how special you were, it didn't matter how happy or sad you were, if you saw someone sad you'd spout random stories to cheer them up, it scared us because we never thanked you for helping cheer us up, we cried thinking we'd never get that chance because you'd be taken away, we felt it was our fault" says Trina as Cat hugs her tight and then cuddles Trina
"when did you change" asks Cat
"when you started 'dating' Tori, she's always felt different, you might not know this but our uncle is working for the prime minister of Spain, he has for years, he's worked for three prime ministers, anyway Tori has always felt like she's missing something, after the opposite date thing she found herself liking boys less and less, but not feeling like girls were possible relationship wise for her, she felt like an alien in her clothes, I'd felt it was my fault for being mean to her for all those years, I'd started throwing ideas at her left and right, then she kissed you and suddenly her mood changed drastically, it was that day that I'd vowed to never be mean again, that I shall never let myself make people feel like less than they are" says Trina
"did she intend to kiss me, it felt intentional" asks Cat
"no it was not intentional, she was as surprised as you were, in fact she was kind of mortified about it, that one day it took you to take her in your arms, she thought for certain you'd call the cops on her, she was absolutely terrified of what would happen next, at her old school she was very much hated, very few people actually worked with her, even after almost three years with you guys as friends who had her back she still questioned it every single day, you changed her life, I happen to know Sadie likes her" says Trina
"oh that's good I guess" notes Cat as she falls asleep