IMPORTANT: before you read ahead, I just wanted to say that I've updated a part of chapter 6 that is going to be important concerning Cat in this chapter and onward. it may be important but it is a small part, so if you don't feel like going back to check, it's this passage (updated part in italics):

"Her entire body ached as if she'd been hit by a bus or ran into by a very large footballer, and there was a ringing in her ears that hadn't stopped since she surfaced the water."

seems small, but it's important. now, onto the chapter!

chapter seven

Beck woke to bright light and a radiating ache in his chest.

For a beat, all he could see was white. He blinked harshly against the light, once, twice, to clear his vision. Once the initial shock of brightness dimmed, Beck found himself staring at a white tiled ceiling. He took a deep breath through his nose, allowing himself another moment to get his bearings together, to try and remember how he got here - wherever "here" was.

It smelt like antiseptic and sea water and death, so Beck assumed that meant he was in a hospital.

He tried to swallow, but it was fruitless; his mouth was static dry. He was able to roll his head to the right despite the soreness in his neck. Lying essentially arms length away was a young woman in a hospital cot, body wrapped with gauze. She was staring blankly at the ceiling with no indication of awareness at all.

In his peripheral he caught movement further down the side of his cot, and when he turned to look, there was Cat.

She was sitting in a black folding chair that had seen better days, desolately picking at the wrapper of a water bottle. She was wearing a loose fitted t-shirt he'd never seen before, her red hair dry and wavy. There were stitches closing the wound on the side of her forehead and a small hard plastic boot-cast secured around her left foot and ankle, which was outstretched before her.

"You gonna share any of that?" He croaked out. His voice was so hoarse it was almost unrecognizable to him.

Cat twitched in surprise, her gaze shooting up. Beck refrained from frowning at the sight of her looking so beat up; from the stitches to the now fully-formed bruises and cuts and to the blown blood vessel in her eye.

"Oh! You're awake!" Cat cried, scooting forward in her seat with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. She took hold of one of his hands with her own, her fingers squeezing his. Her hands were ice cold. He might have just been hot, but he remembered her saying, ages ago, that her body temperature ran lower than most. Cold hands, warm heart, was one of her favorite things to say, which would always provoke an eye roll from Jade.

Jade.

"Good morning!" Cat said, right before he could start to spiral. "How are you feeling?"

"Morning?"

"Yeah." Cat's expression faltered, just slightly. He can tell his question had caught her off guard. "It's morning now. I think it's like 8 AM."

Beck blinked, trying to sift through the fog in his mind to comprehend this new information. The last thing he remembered was trudging through the wreckage with her, the afternoon sun beating down on their shoulders. "I've been out for that long?" He pressed, his brows furrowing.

"No, you woke up a few times during the night, and you were in and out before we got here," said Cat. She was looking at him as though he were a very complex math equation. "You- You don't remember waking up at all?"

He simply shook his head.

"Here." Cat released his hand to pass him her water bottle, which he gratefully took. Someone to his left coughed violently - this hospital staff must have run out of rooms for everybody, placing patients on stiff cots out in the corridors and sitting rooms. Beck's bed was in the middle of a large room, facing a window, which was lined with more vertically placed beds. "They gave you a lot of pain meds. The nurse said you might not remember."

Beck sipped the water gingerly. He knew if he'd chugged it he'd likely feel sick. It was lukewarm, but it felt good on his throat. "How'd we get here?" He asked, his voice less hoarse and strained.

"When you passed out I tried to drag you over to that tree we found, but I couldn't with my ankle all messed up," Cat explained, briefly looking down at her boot-cast. "So I just sat there with you for a while. I think a couple hours? I don't really know, but it was a long time. But then some nice locals found us, and they carried you back to this little village where they were helping people. The closest hospital was too full and wouldn't take any more people, so they took us here instead."

"How far away is this place?" Beck asked. Something like panic bubbled in his chest; he felt light-headed, like he might pass out again. He didn't want to be so far from the hotel. How could he possibly find Jade that way?

"A little less than an hour, maybe?"

Beck sat upright without even thinking, his mind reeling: I have to go. I have to go. I have to go find Jade. Instantly, he regretted it - his entire torso burned something fierce, like the muscle just underneath his skin had been set on fire, like someone had taken both of his lungs and torn them straight out of his chest cavity. Beck's vision went spotty.

Cat was on her feet at his bedside in a second, balance wobbly on her boot-cast, doe eyes wide on her face. "You shouldn't sit up!" She exclaimed. Her hands hovered before his shoulders as though she was ready to push him back down, but hesitant and afraid to touch him.

"We need to go, Cat," Beck said urgently. "I have to get to Jade-"

"We can't leave! You need medical attention!" She said. She placed her hands over his bare shoulder and gently guided him back down - Beck resisted, taking hold of her wrist and gripping tight, but Cat was insistent. "They said you need surgery, Beck. We can't leave."

"I'm fine," Beck insisted. "Jade is out there -"

"You said you were fine right before you passed out and look where it got us," Cat said; her words were a harsh truth he wasn't expecting to hear come from her mouth, but they were said with a kind patience. "Please, just lay back down, Beck."

With some reluctance, Beck let her go and stopped resisting. He let her guide him back down fully, his head falling back against the pillow. He was only given one; it was stiff and smelt kind of funny and hardly elevated his neck, but, it was something. Satisfied, Cat sat back down herself, though reached for his hand again. He held on; it all felt so surreal, but being able to see and touch Cat grounded him back in reality.

They sat in silence for several long minutes before Cat spoke again.

"Do you think that…" Cat's breath hitched, a fresh deluge of tears forming in her eyes. "André and Jade. Do you think that they're okay?"

Beck couldn't help but visibly wince at that. There was a horrible weight on his chest that wasn't entirely related to his injuries. It felt like he was suffocating without her - like she was the very air he breathed, and he was nothing without her. "I don't know, Cat," he murmured. He couldn't lie to her, not about that. "But I do know that Jade's a fighter, and André is resilient. If anybody could make it out of this mess, it's those two."

A hundred emotions washed over Cat's face in the span of only a few seconds. She had always felt things with such an intensity; it was one thing about her that Beck could actually relate to. Where she had felt it in every range of emotion however, Beck only ever felt such an intensity with his anger. "I can't lose them," she whispered, shaking her head.

"I know." Beck squeezed her hand, fighting back an onslaught of his own tears. "I know. I can't lose them either. But we have each other, and that's something. Hell, that's everything, right now. We'll find them together. One way or another, we will."

Cat was a tiny girl in general, but Beck thought she never looked so small before. "Do you promise?" She asked, meek in spite of the strong grip on his hand.

He swallowed thickly. Beck, for the first time in a long time, didn't feel very brave or hopeful at that moment. In fact, he thought he might never see Jade again. But he knew he had to be, for Cat. She was relying on him to be strong. "I promise."

"You really scared me, you know," Cat murmured suddenly, her brown eyes wide, eyebrows pinched together. It was what he and the others ironically called her 'puppy-dog' face.

"I'm sorry," Beck said. He was.

"You didn't listen to me," she continued, a little more urgently. "I told you, you needed to take a break and rest. But you didn't listen. Nobody ever listens to me."

His chest felt heavy again, only this time out of guilt. All he could do was repeat himself: "I'm sorry."

Cat pulled her hand away and played with her fingers in her lap, and Beck suddenly felt more alone than he was. She sniffed and swiped her fingers beneath her cheek, wiping away stray tears. "Jade would yell at you for apologizing so much," she said, laughing shortly.

"Probably," Beck said. He couldn't help the fond grin, although it was short-lasted. "I would gladly take her yelling at me if it meant that I could see her again."

"I know," Cat said quietly. "Me too."

"Tell me something, C."

"Like what?"

"Anything," Beck said, dry coughing into his fist. Any distraction from a missing Jade and the radiating pain all throughout his body was a welcome one. "Tell me something about your brother. You used to always tell us crazy stories about him."

Cat looked back down at her hands, fidgeting with the hospital band around her wrist. Someone had neatly handwritten 'Caterina' on it, with a translation in Thai script directly beneath it. "I haven't heard from Antonio in awhile," she said, much more serious than he was used to seeing her. She perked up sooner than he expected, a soft smile upturning her lips when she looked at him - it made it easier to ignore the bruises on her face, or the blood red of her eye. "I have lots of stories about Sam though! We always go on fun adventures."

Beck managed a small smile. "That works too." Then, as an afterthought, tacked on: "Have you called her yet? Or your Nonna?"

"I can't find a phone," Cat said, her smile disappearing as her brows furrowed. "Well I- I did, but the man who was using it said he was sorry but he needed to save his battery."

"Have you asked anyone else?" Beck asked.

Cat shook her head. "I didn't want to leave you for too long," she said. "I didn't - I didn't want you to wake up alone."

Beck was touched by her consideration - to put off contacting her own family so he could feel less alone. "You should go, try to find one so you could call them. Maybe my family, too," Beck encouraged, forcing a smile through his exhaustion.

"I don't know, Beck." Cat bit her lip. "What if I get lost or something? What if I can't find you?"

"Pretty sure I won't be going anywhere for awhile. You'll find me eventually," he said, and hoped he sounded reassuring. "Go on, C. You don't have to sit here and keep me company all day, you know. I'll probably end up falling asleep."

There was a moment where Cat didn't move, nor did she say anything. She stared at him, chewing at her lip, an anxious uncertainty written plainly over her face. Then, she suddenly took the pen from the medical chart attached to the end of his hospital bed, handed it to him, and presented him the inside of her wrist. Beck stared at her blankly. "Your parent's phone numbers," Cat clarified, looking sheepish.

"Oh." Beck cleared his throat, clicked the pen, and carefully jotted down the numbers against her skin. The ink smudged a little, but it was still eligible. "There you go. Tell them that I'm alright...and that I'll talk to them when I can. And that I love them."

Cat nodded. "Okay, I will," she said very seriously. "I'll be right back."

Beck kept his eyes on her as she left. She turned a few times over her shoulder, reluctant to leave him, but eventually turned a corner and disappeared from sight. He let out a haggard breath, closing his eyes. He was proud of her, he thought. She did not give up.

And Beck, not for the first time that morning, was reminded of himself.

.

.

The hospital they were in was large. Smaller than USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, she knew, but large still. Large enough that every corridor Cat turned, she had to make mental note of.

She'd be doing a lot of retracing her steps when she returned to Beck, that she was sure of.

Cat wasn't sure where exactly to start, or rather, who to ask for a cellphone. It'd been easier the night before when they'd first arrived; many people had been on their phones, or had them out, speaking to loved ones or making arrangements to travel back home. Now it seemed that the worst of the panic had calmed over - now the hospital seemed more despondent, not exactly calm with the sheer volume of patients, but not in a mad rush, either. Cat, as she limped along the patient-lined corridors, passing doctors and nurses and other bloodied and muck-covered wanderers, felt rather inconsiderate just wandering up to ask someone to borrow their phone.

Ten or so minutes into her search, Cat stumbled upon an older man in the skywalk, leaning against the railing with his phone in hand. So she approached, hopeful and anxious.

She tried hard not to stutter over her words, like she used to as a child. Cat wasn't exactly a shy person (and that's when it happened most, in those shy moments) but being in a different country, after a dramatic disaster, unsure of every step she took, it was difficult not to, to say the least.

He was the first to decline (he needed his phone on him urgently - he was waiting for a call from his husband back in the States), and he certainly wasn't the last.

After her third rejection, Cat was beginning to get frustrated. She understood the immediate need for a cellphone, to keep in contact with family and to make accommodations, but could no one spare their phone for five minutes?

Eventually, Cat wandered into a tented area outside where a crowd was gathered around a bulletin board that appeared to have a large list of names on it. Here, there were several people with their phones out - but one in particular caught Cat's eye. Or her ears, rather.

A tall, middle-aged woman was standing off to the side, speaking on her phone. She was speaking rapidly to someone on the other line in what Cat easily recognized as Italian. To the untrained ear, it sounded as though she were arguing with someone - but from what Cat understood (Cat, who primarily spoke Italian at home up until her parents and brother left for Idaho), it sounded like she was updating somebody about her and her son's whereabouts.

Cat waited patiently until she was finished, lowering herself on one of the free benches to give her ankle a break. Cat was aware that there were other people she could have asked, but something in her gut told her to ask this woman first. No matter how long that took.

It took several long minutes - seventeen, to be exact, but who's counting? - until she finally lowered the phone from her ear. Cat stood. Now was her chance.

"Mi scusi, signora?" Cat began as she approached, wringing her fingers a bit shyly. She had never spoken the language to anyone outside of her family before, and even then it had been quite some time since she talked to her parents. The woman glanced up, a modicum of surprise flashing over her face. She looked over Cat in a once-over, to the cuts and bruises all over and the boot-cast on her foot, and the surprise morphed into sympathy.

When she said nothing, waiting expectantly, Cat continued. "I lost my phone and I haven't been able to find one to call home," she said, and was happy to realize the Italian flowed easier to her than she thought it would. "May I please use yours? If you don't mind?"

The woman briefly glanced down at her phone, before extending it toward Cat. "I don't have much battery left," she said, in rapid Italian. "But, please, take it. I am sure your family is worried about you."

"Grazie!" Cat gushed, taking the phone from her hand. She took a few steps away for some privacy, but made sure to stay within close distance. She didn't want this woman to think she was about to take off with her phone.

After her mother's phone had been caught in the crossfire of one of Antonio's meltdowns, she'd gotten a new phone and new number with an Idaho area code. Cat had it saved in her phone when her mother first got it, but couldn't for the life of her remember what it was. She had memorized her parents old phone numbers, and her brother's current number (which was out of order, as of three months ago), but contact with her parents lately had been so scarce that Cat hadn't needed to memorize their new numbers.

So she tried her Nonna instead.

Cat wasn't sure what time it was in Los Angeles, however, and was disappointed but not too surprised when she didn't pick up. She played with the idea of leaving a voicemail, but given it was a stranger's phone, ultimately decided against it, quickly dialing Sam's number. She had it memorized because she was her new emergency contact.

It rang...and rang, and rang, until it went to her automated voicemail.

When she tried again, it went straight to voicemail. Cat made a frustrated noise and dialed again, pressing the phone to her ear, pleading silently for an answer.

To her surprise, and relief, Sam picked up on only the first ring. "What!" She almost screamed. "Who is this and why do you keep calling?"

"Sam," Cat breathed, the tension leaving her body with a surge of relief. To hear her voice was a small comfort from home, and she so desperately wished to be back at her apartment, where it was safe and she could curl up on her That's A Drag couch or double over with laughter playing Rap Attack with her friends. She pressed a hand over her heart and closed her eyes. There was a lump in her throat; Cat didn't think she could possibly cry anymore, but she felt dangerously close to it now. "Sam, it's me. It's Cat."

"Cat?" There was a small amount of commotion on the other line, like Sam had scrambled to get up. "Holy shit, I've been trying to call you all day! I heard about what happened on NewsNewsNews!"

"My phone is gone," Cat said, resigned. The realization hit her that everything in her phone was gone, too: the hundreds of cherished photos of her with her friends, her parents and her brother, the songs she's recorded with André and Jade and Tori and even the ones she's recorded by herself. She hoped that she would be able to recover most of it from the Cloud. "Some nice lady at the hospital is letting me use hers. I tried calling Nonna but she didn't pick up. Is she-?"

"Whoa, whoa, rewind for a sec. You're at a hospital?" Sam interrupted. It was rare to hear her sound anything other than nonchalant; to hear her sound so concerned now was almost staggering. "Are you hurt?"

"A little." Cat sniffed lightly, a few stray tears falling down her cheek. It was getting harder and harder to speak without bursting into hysterics - she hadn't realized how badly she wanted to break down until she heard Sam's voice. "I'm with Beck. He's - he's not doing so well. The others...they aren't here."

There was a pause, however brief. "What do you mean they aren't there, Cat?"

"It means I don't know where they are, or if they're okay!" Cat cried, unable to hold it back any longer. "W-we were at the pool when the water hit us a-and now they're just gone!"

Sam was silent.

"T-Tori and Robbie were upstairs at the hotel," Cat went on without pause. She was only vaguely aware of the Italian woman watching her, sympathy all over her face. "So - so I think that they're okay. But Jade and André-"

"I'll call them," said Sam abruptly. "I have Jade's number. If she doesn't answer, I have Tori's somewhere in my messages. I can at least get her in contact with you, or something."

Cat's heart leapt. "Really?" She sniffed, calming some, but only marginally. "You can?"

"Yeah, she messaged me once," Sam said offhandedly. "What hospital are you at?"

"Umm," Cat glanced around her, trying to wrack her frazzled brain. She'd seen a sign on the way in, and then the name several times over in various hallways. "I think Mueang...Something? I don't know. I can't remember."

"That's good enough, Cat. I'll let them know where you guys are," Sam said confidently. Then, more soft-spokenly (which was odd, hearing from Sam), she said, "I'm glad you're okay, Shortcake. You really had me worried there."

"Me too," Cat whispered, trying to fight back more tears. "I...I have to go, Sam. I can't waste this lady's battery, and I have to call Beck's family and let them know about - about him."

"Wait, hang on a sec!" Sam exclaimed. "How can I get back in touch with you if I can't reach Vega?"

"I'll call you when I can, promise." She turned briefly to the woman, and when she spoke again her voice wavered, thick with tears. "I really have to go, I'm sorry, I love you, I'll call you soon, okay? Please tell Tori."

"Cat, wait-!"

She hung up promptly. She had to, if only to preserve this stranger's battery; otherwise she didn't think she would ever be able to. Speaking to Sam had brought on a new onslaught of feeling Cat hadn't been able to sit down and process until now, too wrapped up in the chaos of everything.

She just wanted to go home.

Home to her apartment in Venice, but more than anything else, home to Sam. Sam, who kept her safe, who stole television sets to make her smile again and played Rap Battle with her.

"If there is someone else you need to call, you can," said the woman in her native Italian, approaching slowly. Cat suddenly felt very guilty, but incredibly thankful for her kindness. The phone only had 21% battery life left on it.

"I won't take long, I promise," Cat replied.

The woman placed a gentle hand on her arm. "Take all the time you need, bambina."

Cat smiled at her gratefully, and nodded. She glanced down at her wrist and, with a steadying breath, dialled one of the numbers Beck had left for her.

It took her to his father's voicemail. Cat tried the other number, which she then presumed was his mother's.

Voicemail, again.

The Low Battery notification popped up on the woman's phone - now at 18%. She couldn't risk completely killing the battery, and so she called his mother's number again to leave her a hurried voicemail, updating Mrs. Oliver about her son's condition, and that she shouldn't call back as it wasn't her phone. She just had to hope that, if Tori or Robbie had their phones, one of them would have been in touch with Beck's parents, and her own. Or, their own parents had reached out to everyone else's.

Yes. Cat had to hope for that, at least.

When all was said and done, she handed the phone back to the woman, who had pulled her into a hug Cat returned just as tightly and wished her well, and began the long trek back to the wing which Beck was being held.

Her ankle was throbbing with each step. It was secured by the boot-cast, but all the exertion was putting a strain on it. Still, Cat pushed on, rushing through the halls and wobbling precariously up and down the stairs. She'd been gone for hours - Beck, if not sleeping, was probably wondering where she was.

It took another fifteen minutes to find the waiting area Beck was in - she'd taken a wrong turn, then got all turned around for a little while. She was only able to recognize a few of the other patients and the faces of their family members.

Beck's hospital bed, however, was empty. His medical chart was gone, too.

Cat's heart gave one mighty thump in her chest.

"Beck?" Cat called out as she approached the empty bed, looking in every direction. She didn't care how loud she was, or if she was disturbing anybody else. Her friend was gone - he was just gone, and he'd told her he wasn't going anywhere. "Beck!?"

There was a minor commotion coming from her right. A group of orderlies and nurses were pushing through the hall, carrying someone in a forest green sling. One of the nurses was holding a chart, and moved passed Cat to clip it to the end of Beck's hospital bed. The orderlies made their way around other patients efficiently, maneuvering to the side of the bed - Cat was able to see that the person they were transporting was an older woman, who appeared to be unconscious.

And they were moving her onto Beck's now empty bed.

"No!" She cried, trying in vain to stop them. "You can't put her here! This is my friend's bed, stop!"

The nurse that had clipped the chart to the railing grabbed her by the arms and guided her away while the orderlies gently lowered the unconscious woman onto the bed, speaking to her in rapid Thai. Cat ripped herself away from her, and turned in a panic to Beck's neighbor - the woman who'd fixated on the ceiling all throughout the night and day - only to find the woman staring back at her. The look on her face was expressionless, but her eyes were watery and her bottom lip wobbled, almost imperceptibly, like she had something that she wanted to say but couldn't.

Cat almost wanted to shake her, say something, you know where my friend is, tell me!

Instead, she stumbled back and pressed her back up against the nearest wall. She slid down it, pulling her knees close to her chest, trying hard not to start hyperventilating.

Her ears were ringing again, but she couldn't remember when they started. She didn't think that they'd ever even stopped.

Cat squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her hands over her ears.

The ringing only got louder.

So...it's been a few years! I am alive, and grateful for the new reviews that inspired me to get on my laptop and continue this fic. I'd like to think my writing has somewhat improved from the last update.

I hope you guys enjoyed this one! we'll be seeing the rest of the crew again and what they're up to in the next chapter - I just thought you guys would want to see more of Beck and Cat after their little absence haha

as always leave a review with your thoughts! I'd love to hear your feedback about this, and any suggestions you might have/things you'd like to see added to it (and I'll see what I can do with them!) I'll do my best to update in a more timely manner. xx