Fandom: Victorious
Title: Point Of View
Chapter 33: Fields of gold.
Point of View: Cat Valentine
July 2023
"Jade, wake up. Please. It's okay; you can open your eyes anytime, sweetheart, and meet your goddaughter."
Stroking her face, I beg her for the millionth time to wake up from her coma. She's been in it since her transplant in June. I place my hand over her heart.
Her new heart.
My brother's heart. He was behind the text messages to Jade and me. It's taken me time to get used to the idea that my brother Sutton is gone. How you can grow up with someone and not see how mentally unstable they are is beyond my reason to comprehend.
Sutton was in love with Jade, and I never knew. Obsessed is the word Jacqui used. They found thousands of photos in his room of Jade in various places and states of dress. Along with videos of Jade and Beck being intimate, which Remi recorded by planting a hidden camera in Jade's bedrooms and Beck's RV with Beck's permission in exchange for acting roles through Remi's many contacts in the industry and sex with her whenever he and Jade fought, or she wasn't available.
The police also found magazines in which Jade was interviewed or modeled for faces of people standing next to her scratched out with red markers or crossed out with scissors, letters Sutton had written to her and never sent from years starting when he was five to current some sweet and some protective and downright deranged fantasies about them getting married having kids. Running away together after he kills her dad because he knows her dad is abusive.
He was right under their noses, and they never saw it.
Remi and Sutton were working together to tear Jade and Beck apart. When Sutton found out I was seeing Jade, he threatened Jade through text messages which I never knew, and when Remi betrayed him and issued the challenge. Sutton felt Remi lost control of the goal and needed to be dealt with. Unfortunately, he lost his temper, and his aim was off. Things spiraled for him when CJ was killed.
He knew he couldn't stay in town or have any chance to be with Jade after he shot her cousin, so he shot her too.
Sutton had friends all over the USA ready to help him hide when he grew up wealthy as we did. When you grow up rich, you have the luxury, most people can't afford private jets at your fingertips, money to pay people off, and friends are willing to break the law cause they know the cash will get them off any legal consequences.
Like Kayla, who told Sutton I was pregnant with Noah's baby after she heard Jacqui talking to my Mom. She only heard half the conversation where they talked about me raising the baby alone.
Not because Noah wouldn't step up but because he didn't know, and I wasn't sure if I would tell him. He's younger and lives in a different city. I have enough money and support to raise a baby on my own. Why would I make him stop living his life and ruin his future by being a dad at fourteen?
Kayla told Sutton what she heard via a burner phone, and she gave Sutton Noah's school address after she stole it from Jacqui's desk. He wasn't expecting us to be there when he planned to kidnap Noah.
I have no idea what he planned to do to Noah, and we may never know Olivia shot and killed him after he aimed at Noah and Amanda took the bullet meant for Noah.
Doctors here at New York Presbyterian Children's Hospital agreed to a heart transplant on Jade. Money played a role in getting her bumped up on the list. It's never supposed to be a factor in who gets a transplant, but it proves money can talk and make things happen. This time it was my Mom. She promised to promote them and donate an annual donation.
I have so many mixed emotions about everything, which I can't even begin to process losing my brother; my dad disowned me. After all, he blamed me for all of it. Jade got the transplant and almost rejected the heart when she developed Cytomegalovirus. She was placed in a medically induced coma to help her body heal. For the past two weeks, she's been finally fighting the infection enough that they started slowly bringing her out of the coma.
I need her to wake up and help me process all of this so she can spend the next thirty years watching my daughter grow up. Four weeks ago, the stress sent me into premature labor.
My daughter was born two months early but thriving and beautiful. Three pounds, nineteen inches. Jade is showing progress; she was taken off the vent two days ago. I kiss Jade's cheek and pray for Jade to wake up.
She's breathing on her own. Her viral load is rising slowly. She moves with touches, and her reflexes are appropriate. She moans when in pain and follows commands, opening and closing her eyes, sticking her tongue out, or gripping and releasing her hands.
"Jade, we all love you," "I'm right here for you," The gang in LA are all waiting for you to come back home."
"I love you. So much. I need you to wake up, sweetheart. So, you can meet my beautiful daughter."
"We all miss you."
"We will never abandon you."
"We will be here for you when you wake up."
"Please wake up. We need you."
"I love how fiery you are, Jade, how protective you are of the people you love. I love how authentic you are, Jade."
Her eyes flutter slowly, opening they stare blankly. Can she see? Hear? "Cat?" her voice is tight, raw, and raspy.
"Yes, baby. I'm Here." I stroke her face feeling tears of happiness streaming down my cheeks.
"I love you so much."
"I.. I…Love you too."
The next few hours pass in a blur. Doctors come in and check her out. Nurses clean her up and change her. They change IVs and order food.
"Jade, are you ready to meet my daughter, your goddaughter?"
"You gave birth." I nod, leaning down to kiss her lips. "I did, honey, four weeks ago."
"Amanda, would you like to be in my daughter?"
Wheeling herself in the hospital-issued wheelchair, Amanda comes inside, my daughter in her lap. Noah is standing behind her, pushing the wheelchair. "Jade, please meet our daughter. Caitlin Jagger Benson."
"She's beautiful, Cat. Just like her Mom."
"Thank you, Jade. Can I ask you a question?"
Jade squeezes my hand, her throat too raw to speak anymore, her eyes exhausted. "Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"
"Yes, Cat. It would be my honor."
"I promise you. I will stay with you forever and be your love."
Her voice is barely above a whisper, but her words reach my soul and make my heart sing. sweetly, I reach down and kiss her tenderly. Our kiss is soft, not forceful. She barely has any energy, but it's the sweetest kiss I've ever felt. It's like walking through fields of gold.