Disclaimer: The show Victorious its characters and other associated copyrights are property of someone else and not me.
Start from scratch
Chapter 31 – The best you can do
No One's POV
As Jade jumped in the cab of the S-Mart van, she was aware of three things. The first of which was that they had just kidnapped someone and needed to get back to New York City before anyone came looking for Cat or Annie. The second thing was the fact that she was in an emotional tailspin from all the events of this afternoon, Tori's recent encounter with Cat and her lingering anger with Tori. The third thing was that Tori was still crying.
Her instincts told her to deal with Tori first or maybe just scream, but priorities were priorities. She needed to get out of town, plain and simple. So pushing her own feelings and Tori' out of her mind, she focused on getting to the highway as soon as possible. The fact she wasn't familiar with Boston didn't help, but the map app on her phone gave her a route.
Making her way through the seemingly labyrinth Boston streets, Jade finally found the on-ramp for the highway heading towards New York City.
It was dark as Jade emerged onto the freeway and she could see most of the other vehicles on the road were semi-trucks. It was only after she had merged into the late evening traffic, did Jade realize she had been holding the steering wheel with an almost death like grip.
She looked over to Tori, who had stopped crying and was numbly staring out the window. Jade wanted to speak, but found herself suddenly unable to talk. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to yell at Tori, cry, or breath a sigh of relief. She felt emotionally overwhelmed.
Unable to speak, Jade focused her eyes on the road and drove, the only sound that could be heard was that of the engine and wheels on the pavement.
Jade lost track of the time as they drove, dividing her attention between the semi in front of her and her turbulent thoughts.
"It's 8:00 now." Said Tori in a soft voice, breaking the stillness.
"By now, they know two of their flock are missing. Vega could you do me a favor?"
"What?"
"In my bag, next to me, there is a small vial of liquid. It's the Rohypnol that Barbie got for me to use on Annie, could you pour it out please. I'd rather not hold on to it.
"Sure." Tori said as she began to dig through Jade's bag.
After a moment of searching, the vial was discovered. Tori then poured it out the window and chucked the vial itself, just to be sure it was gone.
"Thank you Tori."
The ice had been broke, but only just. The conversation was stilted and their word spoken cautiously. Each felt like they were somehow walking through a minefield, where if the wrong thing was spoken the other would explode.
"I've been thinking Jade?"
"About what?"
"Lots of things, but I did realize sending Annie to her parents actually works better for us. Originally she'd wake in her own apartment or be able to sound the alarm that Cat had been kidnapped. Now, she's on her way home. Even if the cult members get in their apartment, they'll find nothing to indicate any foul play. So if they call the police, what can they say? Um… two of our members didn't show up for bible study. The cops will think it's a joke and hang up. The cult members will know something's wrong, but they won't be able to do much about it."
Jade nodded. "True, but I still want to put as much distance between us and them and them, as quickly as we can."
Tori pulled a water bottle from her bag and took a drink. "Of course. Do you want any water? I've got a few sandwiches from the bus station if your hungry."
"No thank you. For what's it worth, we just passed into Rhode Island."
"Good."
The conversation seemed to die and for the next half an hour or so, they sat in silence as the van drove through the city of Providence.
Again Tori broke the silence. "I wasn't going to abandon you."
Jolted from her thoughts, Jade looked over with a puzzled expression. "What, When?"
"The sirens, when I heard the sirens. I thought someone saw us and called the cops. Part of me wanted to leave with Cat right then and there, but I refused to abandon you. "
Jade paused as she took a moment to change lanes. "You would have waited for me, even though you were sure the cops were coming for you."
"Yes."
"Even though I've been a shit the last week. Not that I'm over it, but you wouldn't leave me." Jade said somewhat tersely
"I wouldn't abandon you. Tell me, did you mean that threat, when you threatened Cat?"
After taking deep breath and exhaling, Jade responded. "At that moment, yes I did. I didn't even have to think about it. She hurt you and I just reacted. I just couldn't stand seeing you like that."
"It wasn't really Cat you know. She's been programmed to say that. I shouldn't have let her get to me. That was stupid. How do you think Barbie is doing with Cat?"
Jade shrugged. "We'll I haven't heard any blood curdling screams, so they probably haven't killed each other. You can text her if you're curious."
"I'll leave her be, she give us a shout if she needs anything."
Again the conversation seemed to dry up, each not sure what to say. So they let the silence fall and watched the houses and buildings streak by.
After a while, Tori's phone chimed, breaking the stillness once again.
Picking up phone, Tori quickly read an email and smiled.
"Good news, Barbie just got an email from Annie's parents; she forwarded it on to me. They picked her up at the bus station safe and sound. She's still asleep, but is now comfortably resting in her own bed, in her own room, at her parents' house. It says they've got all her friends, family and even the local priest coming over to stage an intervention when she wakes up. They're confident they can bring her back to reality. They send their profound thanks."
"She's in for a bit of a surprise, isn't she."
Tori couldn't help but nod in agreement. "I'd say so."
"Tori I just have to say this, I'm still angry at you. Part of me doesn't' want to, but I just can't help it."
"Because I forced you into doing my way?"
"Yes!" Said Jade forcefully.
Tori who up to now, had been speaking softly, spoke louder and more confidently. "Jade, I'm not going to apologize for that. I did what I did for you; to stop you from running off and just snatching her off the street. You could have wound up under arrest or worse. As I said before, I care for you and I won't let anything happen to you. Not to mention I've just been thinking of something, you're a hypocrite."
"WHAT!"
"Yes Jade, a hypocrite. You're mad at me because I blackmailed you into doing something my way. Something I did for YOUR own good. But look at what we just did. We drove to Boston, knocked out Cat with a stun gun and stuffed her in the back of a delivery van so we can have her deprogrammed. Something we did FOR HER OWN GOOD! So you're mad at me, for doing the very same thing you just did to Cat. Not to mention that when Cat got angry at me, you got mad at her. You thought her anger at me unjustified, so much so you threatened to kill her. Well then your anger at me, is just as unjustified."
For several seconds, Jade sad there frozen with a rather stupid look on her face as Tori's rather devastating logic sank in.
"I HATE BEING FORCED, Beck force me to do things for 3 years and now you!" Screamed Jade.
Doing her best not to take it personally, Tori lowered her voice to a more soothing level. "To be honest, I didn't enjoy forcing you. I found it rather distasteful. But I'll take that to having to visit you in prison any day. "
"Tori how many times do I need to tell you that that Beck forced to do things. You doing that, brought a lot of those memories back. Set off some of the same fears. Please understand, I'm still trying to get over this."
Tori paused for a moment to think. "I'm sorry he treated you like that, I really am. Jade, a person's life if full of choices. You do the best you can do, under the circumstances and sometimes you'll make the right choice and sometimes you won't. I made the best choice I could at the time, for both you and for Cat. I just said your anger wasn't justified. Now that I think about it, I was wrong, at least partially. I am sorry. You do have a right to be angry, but I just need you to understand, that I did this only because I felt I had to. Just like you felt you had to do what you did with Cat and even then, perhaps Cat has a right to be angry. Maybe there was a different way we didn't think of."
Jade shook her head. "As mad as I am, I now realize that you did what you thought was best. I can't fault you for that. Had you not forced me into this plan, I may have just grabbed Cat off the street. I just can't let go of things so easily, not this, not Beck, I'm so screwed up."
"Look, I know you feel wounded, and torn up inside. Beck's locked away and you still see him when you go to sleep. You're confused, scared, traumatized and your emotions are running amuck. And I think deep down that you're scared that I won't give you another chance. That I'll see the way you are and I'll reject you. You feel violated and dirty and don't feel that you are worth being loved.
Tori then gently placed her hand on Jade's shoulder "Jade, I've had a crush on you ever since that first day at Hollywood Arts. I think you're beautiful and special. We've already been through a lot together, you've made mistakes, I've made mistakes, but we came through it and formed a bond in the process. There is nothing more in the world that I want than, when you're ready, to start to date again and see if we can deepen that bond. I know there's no guarantee in life and I don't have all the answers or know what will happen to us."
"Like we end up hating each other." Jade noted sadly.
"I can't lie and say that won't happen, but I can tell you with every fiber of my being, that as a lover for simply a friend; there is no one else I want to be with right now. I didn't abandon you today and I hope to be there for you for a very long time. I dearly hope that's something you'd like too. "
The moving speech, quickly caused Jade to start choking up. "I don't know what to say, here you make this beautiful speech and I've got nothing. I can't even say how I truly feel."
"You don't have too. Words are overrated, anyway. We watch out for each other. We may not always do it in the best way and sometimes we fail, but we do the best we can do."
Jade smiled as a tear ran down her cheek. "Tori, you're my best friend."
Just hearing that, a simple affirmation of their deep friendship was music to Tori's ears. "You're my best friend too."
Feeling better, Jade let some of her dark humor show. "At least until we end up hating each other."
Tori let out a laugh. "Fair enough."
"Regardless if my anger is justified or not, I plan to be mad at you for 2 or 3 more days. Just to get it out of my system."
Tori leaned back in her seat and shrugged. "Ok."
Jade's expression turned serious for a moment. "You're ok now?"
"Yeah, I forgot it wasn't really Cat and let her get to me, I shouldn't have done that. I'll be fine. What about you?"
There was a long pause before Jade finally answered. "I'll be fine…..someday."
"Enough deep talk. I'd hate for us to run out of things to talk about. How about we just relax and listen to tunes." Tori said as she flipped on the radio.
They were soon greeted by the sounds of Christopher Cross, singing, Arthur's Theme, from the 1981 movie, Arthur.
"I love this song." Tori said as she turned up and began to sing along. After a few bars, Tori looked to Jade who was just shaking her head.
"Come on Jade, stop being a party pooper, you like the song admit it."
"NO. I hate this song."
"YOU LYING SACK OF SHIT! NOW SING DAMMIT!"
Jade let out a resigned sigh and began to sign along the Latina.
"When you get caught between the Moon and New York City
I know it's crazy, but it's true
If you get caught between the Moon and New York City
The best that you can do
The best that you can do
Is fall in love"
After two songs, Jade stopped pretending she hated singing along and they kept on singing with Tori to every other goofy old pop song that came on after it. Just under2 hours and two arguments over who was out of tune, later, they pulled up in the parking lot of the New York City hotel, where they were to meet the professional deprogrammer.
Getting out of the van they saw a woman in her forties, with short black hair, walk up. "Hello, I'm Andrea Middleton; you must be Jade and Tori."
Tori shook Andrea's hand. "Yes, I'm Tori, this is my friend Jade."
Jade then shook Andrea's hand. "Pleased to meet you."
"Well Ladies, you texted and said you grabbed your friend Cat. How did it go?"
Tori handed Andrea, Cat's purse.. "Pretty good, we had one glitch, but worked around it. We got away with her clean. Here's her purse, her phone is in there and turned off. Are you ready?"
Andrea took the purse, but transferred Cat's phone to her own. "Can't let her have the phone right now. I am ready. How was she when you grabbed her."
Tori shuddered. "Pissed off to no end. They got to her good."
"How long do you think it will take?" Jade inquired.
"It depends on the individual. I have to break the programming and revert them back to their original personality. It could take a few days, but we'll beat this. I've done this before."
Tori nodded. "Got it, let's open up the back and see what we'll find."
Jade grabbed the latch and started to open the back of the van. "Lots of blood and two corpses I'd guess. In that case Vega, you're cleaning it up."
Not quite knowing what to expect, Jade threw open the doors. A second later, they spotted, Barbie who surprisingly, had her arm around Cat's waist. Cat herself was sort of clinging to Barbie in return..
"I'm so confused, what do I do Barbie?" Said Cat, in a trembling voice.
"Don't worry sugar, you're going to spend some time with this nice lady named Andrea and she's going to help you. Come on."
Cat reluctantly stepped out of the rear of the van, still clinging to Barbie. Both very baffled by this turn of events, Jade and Tori noted Cat seemed to avoid looking at them. Though they got the impression it was out of shame and or fear, so they simply stepped back and let Barbie do her thing.
Barbie stepped up to Andrea. "Hello, you must be Andrea. I'm Barbie."
Andrea quickly shook "Hello Barbie, is this Cat?"
"Yes. I can't say she's deprogrammed, not by a longshot, but I've managed to loosen her up for you. She's mega confused at the moment." Barbie then turned to Cat. "Ok, this is Andrea. You can go with her now. She's got a nice room in the hotel where she's going to spend some time talking with you. It's ok."
Cat then cautiously walked up to Andrea and said a meek, hello.
"Hello Cat, why don't you come with me? We're going to spend some time talking. I've even got some clothes for you to change into."
Cat nodded and as Andrea led her off, she turned to Barbie. "Call me, please?"
"I told you I would, stop worrying. Now go." Barbie said in a reassuring voice.
Barbie then shut the back of the van and turned to Tori and Jade. Both of them had looks of near shock on their faces and mouths hanging open to boot.
"You two look stupid with your mouths hanging open. Please tell me you worked it out, cause if you didn't, I'm too damn tried to do anything about it."
"We're…we're fine." Tori managed to speak first.
"What happened?" sputtered Jade.
"All I'll say is, I'm that good. You two sooooo owe me a threesome and believe me, I do plan to collect. But for now, I just want to drop you two clowns off, go home and go to sleep." Said the blue eyed, blonde with a mixture of weariness and pride.
As Barbie walked towards the front of the truck, Jade turned to Tori. "Threesome?"
Tori nodded. "Yep. We'll discuss it later."
Jade for a moment thought of her kiss with Barbie and shrugged. "Ok"
Still very puzzled about what happened in the back of the van, the pair exchanged puzzled looks and headed towards the front of the van.
I have a question for you readers. Since Cat and Barbie have bonded, would you like to see a chapter focusing on them? It would start with their experiences in the same van ride. If you don't, we'll just leave what happened in the van to your imaginations and move on with the story.
But in any case, Tori understands Jade's anger and Jade understands Tori's motivations for what she did. They have affirmed their friendship and things are looking better.
Lyrics for, Arthur's theme(The best you can do) are printed without permission.