Sunday morning as Lucy and Dustin walk into the kitchen
"sir here is the letter, it contains everything she can remember, the basketball thing she says was intentional on Logans part, it scrambled her memories pretty good, that said she is slowly getting them back, as traumatic as that can be, she said if she remembers more she will write a more accurate letter but again that is as accurate as she can manage" says Dustin handing Alexander the letter
"dare I read it before handing it in to the prosecutor" asks Alexander
"she had me read it, to check for spelling errors, I don't think I'll sleep soundly for days, if you want to protect yourself from heart attacks I'd suggest you don't read it, what's for breakfast" says Dustin as Alexander wisely puts the letter to the side
"cereal, Cat told me the kind of cereal you will eat Lucy, I looked for the oatmeal Cat said you liked but the store didn't have any, I've ordered some, it should be here in a few days" says Alexander as he slides Lucy's favorite cereal over
"I'm not touching that" says Lucy beginning to panic
"oh god I just triggered a memory didn't I" asks Alexander
"thankfully not the sexual kind though that does not make it any less unpleasant for her, let's just say he salted her cereal with stuff, some sort of chemical he made Quinn create, she says it made her controllable, unable to resist his orders, she'll have the same cereal I'll have, lucky Leprechaun please" says Dustin as Andre slides it over
"Lucy are you ok with this" asks Alexander as Lucy manages a nod
"she's still tired, we had a movie marathon date last night, we didn't fall asleep until midnight, the only reason we didn't wait till lunch was because goosie here was hungry" says Dustin nuzzling Lucy then pouring her a bowl of cereal
"goosie, that's a cute nickname" says Andre as Cat manages to walk down the stairs
"she's my Lucy Goosie" says Dustin as Lucy blushes
"how are your legs today Catarina" asks Alexander
"tender but they're holding my weight, though I stood on them a lot yesterday talking to you about Lucy and the rape realization so I don't expect them to keep holding my weight for much longer" says Cat, wobbling to the kitchen table
"Andre can we have a word outside" asks Alexander
"absolutely, just let me pour Cat her cereal first" says Andre
With Alexander 5 minutes later by the pool
"Andre I know that wobble, as much as Cat is your girlfriend she is also a victim in my investigation into Logan's exploitation of her and the other girls" says Alexander
"wait, you think I had sex with Cat, slow your roll dad, we never get that far, Cat is the one entertaining the idea not me, she falls asleep before we get a chance and her big rule is no sex if she falls asleep, I follow her lead, she's the one with trauma, gaining her trust is important, if she says no it means no, she might be the one for me, I'm not about to risk it if it means I shatter the trust I've already got, no amount of fun is worth losing her" says Andre
"if that's the case the wobble scares me even more" says Alexander
"what do you mean, her doctor is excited that she's finally walking, her doctor says things can only go up from here" says Andre
"that toxin, Andre it's a bio-weapon, it's designed to attack the body, all the antidote has actually done is limit it to her legs, makes it so it can't explode in numbers, it is still eating at her muscles, you have to ask yourself, how long do I wait before they have to amputate, how long will I keep Cat in pain" says Alexander
"WHOA Dad calm down, the doctor says things are good, Cat's happy, what's wrong with that" says Andre
"I've spoken to the doctor, as has the prosecutor, that doctor has been instructed, against my better judgement to sugar coat the state of her condition, the prosecutor has Cat at the top of the list, she expects Cat to be the first one to tell her story and she's willing to go to great lengths to keep Cat willing to testify, even if that means lying to her" says Alexander
"what are the risks of waiting, the trial could be a year or more away" asks Andre
"that depends on her, worst case they amputate at the hip, essentially removing as much of the damaged leg as possible, if you go today, by the looks of the wobble, she might only lose her feet, but they can do things to make prosthetics as realistic as possible now, they can get it to match the feel of her skin" says Alexander
"Cat is beyond dedicated to saying her piece in court to get justice, she doesn't combine the two incidents, one was the result of a general pot distribution poisoning, what Logan did to her was targeted at her, she's not as dumb as she sometimes makes herself look, she'd have never been allowed to transfer to Hollywood Arts if she was that dumb dad" says Andre
"so we agree on the severity of her current condition" asks Alexander
"yes, she has an appointment for blood tests for the toxin levels after breakfast, Cat and I will talk to the doctor, she will not be happy, the thing Cat hates the most is being lied to, she already has trust issues with doctors, mainly because they LIE TO HER dad" says Andre as he heads inside
1 hour later at the hospital
"doctor Brown, you lied to me, you said I was getting better, people keep telling me to trust doctors, THIS is why I don't" says Cat
"I assume Agent Harris voiced his opinion, look I didn't have a choice, the prosecutor wants you to testify, she sees you as a jumpy girl that would back away in fear if given half a chance" says Doctor Theodore Brown
"so you chose to lie to me, the trial date is set so far away the toxin could kill me, you didn't think I deserved to know that, what's the quickest way to find out what I might have to lose to stay alive" says Cat furious
"you'd be here for a few hours, we would need to run your entire volume of blood through a detoxifier, the process takes an hour, you'd be hooked up to machinery, we'd know after that what is damaged and what can be saved" says Doctor Theodore
"how much does it cost, I don't have a lot of money" asks Andre
"her aunt authorized all procedures dealing with the toxin" says Theodore
"then lets get started" says Cat
"ok then" says Theodore
20 minutes later as they put Cat under to start the process
"uhh doc, why'd you put her under, is it that bad" asks Andre wishing he hadn't had that large gulp cup on the way
"it can be a painful process" says Theodore
"can I use the bathroom" asks Andre
"use the one in here and DO NOT let anyone in except me" says Theodore
"but there's no door to the bathroom" says Andre
"this is a psych ward, unfortunately the hospital hired two creeps, they like to traumatize the psych patients, I will lock the door behind me when I leave and I have the only key to this room, here's my phone number, message me with the progress, her skin will darken then return to normal, the parts that don't are damaged, hence why she's basically naked, if it hit her reproductive organs it's bad though that area of her body should return to normal first, if it goes as I expect her feet and calves should remain partly purple" says Theodore
"but if it remains purple doesn't that mean you'll have to amputate, doesn't that mean there is no blood flow" asks Andre
"her blood is more concentrated than you'd think for her size, as a result the blood is keeping her veins open even though they're breaking down, it's prolonging muscle death, removing the toxin stops the death, things will constrict and won't allow blood back in even at the same blood pressure, undamaged or newly damaged veins will allow normal blood flow and will heal, at best she loses her feet, at worst we amputate at the knee, we already took skin texture molds just incase, I'll be back in half an hour to check up on the progress" says Theodore as he leaves and locks the door
30 minutes later as the doctor returns
"you said her hands were darker than the rest of her body, by what degree" asks Doctor Brown
"like very dark" says Andre very clearly worried as Doctor Brown checks up on Cat's progress
"OK so I guess I should have explained it better, she's tilted in a semi-standing position meaning as the blood returns, her body prioritizes her legs and her head, as you can see her waist is becoming brighter, her body has been attempting to get blood everywhere in her legs but it can't get enough through, her body has given up, her torso will return to normal shortly, her arms will be last, why the focus on her arms" says Doctor Brown
"she wants to be a singer, she has an amazing voice but she can't hold a microphone without hands or arms" says Andre
"then if you must, warm up her hands with your own, that will call blood that direction but I urge you to wait ten more minutes, her 'Kitten' as I'm told she calls it is currently having blood return, calling blood to other parts of her body at this moment could shut down any future children she might want, either with you OR someone else, I beg you to think of her future, don't rush the process too much, I'll be back in half an hour, she should almost be back to normal by then" says Doctor Brown, leaving again locking the door as a girl age tries to get in
"let me in, I need to see her" says Paige Sikowitz as Andre ignores her, focusing on Cat
"I hope she's ok" says Andre
45 minutes later
"she's looking good, no dark areas above the knee, did anyone try and get in over the hour" says Doctor Brown as he pulls Cat off the anesthetic
"a girl that looked to be Cat's age or mine, it was hard to tell through the window, she seemed to cry, she only tried to get in after you left the second time, saying 'let me in, I need to see her, from her tone she was putting emphasis on the her part" says Andre
"did she look like a patient or a visitor" asks Doctor Brown
"definitely a patient, the one after you left the doctor put her in a straight jacket as they were pulling her away" says Andre
"was she about Cat's height" asks Doctor Brown
"yes, maybe a smidge taller" says Andre
"sounds like Paige Sikowitz, she's been here all week, after she saw Cat the first time she thought we were killing her, she was probably trying to save her, I told the doctors no restraints, that Paige was here under a strict federal court order, luckily for Paige she's quite easy to pull out of what I call living nightmares, she's easily convinced of conspiracies but just as easily pulled out of them, though in this case only Cat being alive and well will fix this one given they were dating for almost five years, I've scheduled Cat's amputation surgery, it's in fifteen minutes, long enough for it to be quite obvious where blood is absolutely no longer getting to but before anything begins to smell, as of right now it seems to be just her feet but we'll know more in a few minutes" says Doctor Brown as another doctor walks in
"sorry to bother you but Paige is begging us to let her see Cat, she won't stop about it" says Doctor Francis
"there is not time at this moment for a reunion, bring her here, supervise her here with Andre and take off the DAMN straight jacket, the court order specifically says NO restraints, we're trying to find symptoms not cause them, because of the court order legally speaking Paige has the right to sue you for every infraction up to a max of a million dollars, every straight jacket infraction is ten thousand dollars Marge" says Doctor Brown
"it's not our fault, the freaks fed her lunch and riled her up, told her that Cat was here, she was about to have a nap when they told her Cat was here, she was getting more and more upset when people had to tell her no, she nearly broke off two brand new nurses wrists off, they had to be admitted for extreme wrist damage, protocol for an aggressive psych patient is to restrain them, would you have rather risked more nurses arms or legs" says Doctor Francis
"Andre did she seem to be a threat" asks Doctor Brown
"no, she seemed curious, she would come to the door and stare in, she began to cry more and more every time she was taken away, Doctor Francis you have to understand something, Paige and Cat were dating, since they were ten, only being split up rather recently when she unintentionally broke the big rule and subsequently arrested and convicted on charges that did not represent what actually happened" says Andre as Cat slowly wakes up
"doc I can't feel my feet" says Cat
"let's get you prepared for the operation, you got lucky, only your feet have to be sacrificed to keep you alive" chuckles Doctor Brown trying to lighted the mood
"doctor Brown, no jokes about her body, just get it done" says Andre as Doctor Brown nods and rolls Cat out of the hospital room
"what do you mean 'unintentionally' broke a big rule in their relationship, as I see it if it could be that easily broken it wasn't that important" says Doctor Francis
"the rule was that in order for them to stay together Paige was not to lay a hand on Cat in anger, to fully understand why things went wrong you have to understand Cat's behaviour, she lost her mother, father and her brother in a car crash when she was six, after CPS threw her out at seven she was forced to provide for her two year old sister, the only connection to her old life was her mother's phone, for three years, she was ten before her aunt found them, anyway as a result, in saying goodbye she hugs people as if it's the last time she will see them, Paige witnessed Cat hugging her male cousin in a way Paige took as romantic, Paige grabbed Cat's arm to prevent her from 'making a mistake', apparently Paige had a tendency to keep her nails sharp, anyway before she'd fully tightened her grip on Cat's arm she pulled away, scratching Cat, the court appointed lawyer defending Cat chose to represent the scratches as an attempt on Cat's life, Cat had no say in how the evidence of the 'crime' was portrayed, which in itself should be a crime, which eventually led to that federal judge issuing her release and ordering an assessment that led to today, Cat does not fear Paige, it is your guys overreaction that is causing fear, I'm certain that if Paige really wanted to get in she would have, Paige clearly holds Cat's safety above her own, you need to stop thinking of Paige as a rampant threat, for years doctors in hospitals have been playing catch and release with her mental health, she'd come in with Cat and her aunt, Paige would explain the symptoms, Valerie would back her up, the doctors would keep her for an hour, see no symptoms and release her, Cat specifically said the symptoms were spread over a few hours" says Andre
"that's definitely the trend we're seeing, spotty clarity mixed in with minor psychosis, we've narrowed it down to three disorders but she won't let us make a decision without Cat's input" says Doctor Francis
"well go get Paige then" says Andre
"she's mid psychosis right now, I'm not sure that's a great idea" says Doctor Francis
"psychosis brought on and amplified by you guys treating her like a threat, Cat's taught me a few things about how to maneuver Paige's active zones, I'm not defenseless" says Andre as Doctor Francis begrudgingly goes to get Paige
10 minutes later as Paige enters
"where's Cat" asks Paige
"in surgery, just so you know I'm her boyfriend" says Andre as Paige visibly calms down
"I'm glad, my uncle has told me about you, about how you deeply care about people, going through trauma can be hard" says Paige
"why did you want to see Cat today so badly, I'm not suspicious, I'm just curious" says Andre keeping a calm tone
"those male nurses that fed me lunch, they're raping female patients, they told me Cat was here and that she'd be next" says Paige
"oh so you were afraid that they'd gotten to her" asks Andre
"yes, I don't know if she's told you but her and I dated since we were ten, I would run my hands over her body to calm her down,… crap I need to tell her about Lucy" says Paige fake choking herself for forgetting
"about Logan, about him raping her" asks Andre as Paige's jaw drops
"y-yes, d-does she know already" asks Paige
"Cat only learned about it through Lucy telling Dustin that Logan took it, even without being specific about what 'it' was, Cat was convinced as was Zoey about what it meant" says Andre
"I'm not safe here, I need to get out" says Paige
"why aren't you safe here" asks Andre
"those male nurses, they touch me, they raped me this morning, nobody believes me" says Paige as Doctor Brown walks in
"hey Doc, Paige says those creepy male nurses raped her this morning" says Andre
"has she reported it" asks Doctor Brown
"I've tried, nobody believes me" says Paige clinging to Andre, afraid of Doctor Brown
"have you been asked to shower yet today" asks Doctor Brown
"no, I've resisted, spending time with Cat as I had I knew what important evidence plays, I swear I'm not lying right now" says Paige
"would you be willing to have a rape kit done" asks Doctor Brown
"yes but not here, not with those nurses still in the building, I do not trust that they won't alter evidence" says Paige
"are you the only one" asks Doctor Brown
"no, they brag about having raped every female patient who won't be believed, I estimate fifty girls" says Paige
"what if we perform the rape kit here, in this room and I process any DNA myself, would you say yes then" asks Doctor Brown
"only if you don't perform the kit yourself and the nurses don't find out, I'd hate to be raped for telling a doctor I was raped" says Paige
"you're not all that insane are you, what do you see as the cause for your mental health problems" asks Doctor Brown
"my mom for one, for another from age four to nine my mom had rotating boyfriends, every single one was encouraged to touch me, the last one raped me, after that I was dating Cat and safe, I haven't felt safe since leaving her side" says Paige
"and you've told doctors this before, do I have that correct" asks Doctor Brown
"every time, they don't care, they saw it as me a little kid, creating a fictional story to explain why I was dating a girl, no doctor ever believes me" says Paige
"do you trust doctor Francis" asks Doctor Brown
"she doesn't believe me but she has been professional when doing stuff like blood tests, as long as she's not voicing her personal opinion I trust her enough to do that test" says Paige
"Andre I will be right back with the inspection bed, as you kept Cat safe I'm asking that you keep Paige safe, let nobody remove her from this room" says Doctor Brown in a serious tone
"you have my word, she will be safe" says Andre as Doctor Brown leaves
"Cat knows I didn't intent to kill her right, I still love her, I miss her so much" says Paige nearly in tears
"Cat never blamed you, the only reason she even went looking for someone else was because she believed that even if your conviction is fully overturned on a federal level, she doesn't think the state would see you any more than a felon that got away with their crime, she feels that if you and her walked around openly dating that you'd be arrested on sight" says Andre
"what about secretly…." Says Paige as one of the creepy nurses barges in
"hand her over, she's not a free woman yet" says Nurse George Silver as Paige hides
"I have direct order to protect her, you will not touch her" says Andre quickly getting behind and restraining the nurse in a chokehold
"she's not yours to save, she's my property" says nurse Silver as Andre chokes him
"don't kill him, he's evil but don't stoop to his level, please I'm begging you" pleads Paige as nurse Silver falls to the ground unconscious
"I know better than to kill, he's unconscious, my dad is the FBI agent that found the evidence of fraudulent charges against you, his reasoning was 'lovers scratch one another all the time', he saw injustice in your case, before he was FBI he was a public defender, if he was your lawyer you'd have never been sent to prison in the first place" says Andre as Doctors Brown and Francis enter for the exam
"Uhh what's nurse silver doing in here" asks Doctor Francis
"he tried to take Paige out of here, said she wasn't a free woman yet, that she was his property, don't worry, he's unconscious not dead, if I were you Doctor Brown I'd get him out of here, call the police, I'm fairly certain he and his friend will be implicated by DNA, I'll watch Paige" says Andre as Doctor Brown drags nurse silver out of the room
"who said you get to watch" asks Paige
"I never said I would watch the kit being done Paige, besides you already admitted to not trusting Doctor Francis's opinion, also Cat would have asked me to be here anyway, I'll hold your hand" says Andre as Paige nods and grabs for his hand as she gets up on the examination bed
15 minutes later as Cat arrives back from the amputation surgery
"hey, what's Paige doing in my hospital room" asks Cat surprised
"she was raped this morning by two nurses, initial DNA tests match but now we're waiting on the LAPD DNA tests, if it is them there will be a match because they committed similar crimes before" says Doctor Francis
"and yet they were allowed to work here" says Andre
"the hospital checked with their probation officer, they said there was no activity since they were released, so either the probation officer lied or the hospital overlooked it" says Doctor Francis as Cat's phone rings and Cat answers it
"Cat get yourself and Paige out of that hospital, there's an LAPD raid headed your way, the DNA results just came back, there l three results the two new nurses and another one, a recent janitor hire" says Valerie
"Valerie the toxin took her feet, she's not going anywhere for the next half hour while she gets the anesthesia out of her system" says Doctor Brown
"I thought you told me she was fine, that the antidote was working" asks Valerie
"the FBI investigation into Logan Reese is quickly gaining steam, the prosecutor didn't want Cat to back out, especially after she learned Lucy was raped by Logan, likely every day, the prosecutor wanted as much explosive evidence as possible, Cat's case was important, neither Agent Harris nor I agreed that it was the best route but we complied, today we did a full detoxification of her blood and her feet were nearly black, but only after Cat signed an agreement that she wouldn't back out of the case if we moved forward with it, by doing so she is now toxin free, we modeled new feet, they're as accurate as the technology allows, very few people will even know, anyway I'll round up both nurses and meet you at the front doors and the raid team can search for the janitor" says Doctor Brown
"Theodore Baker Brown-Valentine I want to make this clear, from now on you are never lie to your niece again or you will have an officer tracking your every movement, mom didn't raise no liar nor did she raise no fool, I will not tolerate any more lying coming from you, next time it happens expect to be arrested, you put her life in danger, furthermore you risked the legacy of my sister, whose life I swore to avenge, no more lying to your niece, am I understood" says Valerie raising her voice as if she was talking to a child
"understood, Cat, Andre and Paige are in room two hundred, if your raid wants to evacuate them go ahead but I know you only called to warn them, in reality there was no way they could leave in time" says Doctor Brown
"God damn it Theodore, I wish you didn't know me so well, keep them safe, the next call blip I get to Cat you're to let all three of them leave, Paige is to be monitored at Andre's house and is not to return to the hospital unless absolutely necessary" says Valerie as she hangs up
"wait you're my uncle" asks Cat
"by adoption, I was five, my mom died to protect me, the Valentine family took me in, your mom among them" says Doctor Brown
"what was my mom like" asks Cat
"she was unlike any other girl, popular in school but cared about the homeless, she spent an hour after school talking to homeless girls and boys, Valerie hated that about her, frankly they never got along, even less so as they got older, your mom cared about justice for the less fortunate and Valerie cared about not becoming the less fortunate" says Doctor Brown
"but auntie isn't like that now, what changed" asks Cat
"finding you and Lucy, she spent most of those three years looking at your posts on your moms social media, trying to convince herself that you'd just gotten ahold of your moms phone, it wasn't until I noticed something terrifying in the background of your pictures, I frantically went to the police spoke to Valerie in person, I told her to take a good look at the pictures, asked her what she saw, she cursed at herself and said 'rape Valley', got up and got in her cop car, my only question to you is did your mom not warn you about that neighborhood" says Doctor Brown
"she tried to but back then it never made sense to me, when I was eight it dawned on me that rapes were happening all around me, I began asking myself why they never touched me, then one day I looked at Lucy and it all made sense, at the time Lucy and I had very similar eye colors, they assumed she was my daughter, after seeing me struggle for several months they began getting me food, food for me and Lucy" says Cat
"what was it like for you, living on the streets" asks Paige never having heard the story before
"people were very greedy, a whole days worth of asking for spare change only ever netted me just enough money to buy Lucy baby food, I only ate more than scraps, getting lucky and having someone drop off a big dinner once a week, after the rapists began feeding us I was finally able to look normal, I looked like a skeleton with cloth on it before then, it was quite scary" says Cat as the sirens finally enter psych ward and a worried David Vega looks in
"let him in" says Andre as Doctor Brown unlocks the door
"Cat please tell me Lucy wasn't here with you today" asks David
"no, she's at home, she's partially enrolled in PCA's remote learning program, getting her back on track so she has the vocabulary to tell her story at the trial" says Cat
"by home you mean at Andre's" asks David
"auntie isn't allowed to know specifics at this moment Mr. Vega, if she has a question she can speak to Patrick at Lu-Care in Lancaster" says Cat
"it's just she heard this rumor that she was raped by this Logan guy that Agent Harris is investigating, she feels guilty because she sent you both to PCA, she feels responsible, she thinks that's why Lucy hates her" says David
"that is absolutely not why Lucy mistrusts Auntie, she never goes off duty, even when she's not in uniform she carries her gun, she never visited PCA without it and always threatened people with it when she thought they were being rude to Lucy or me, the first time we met Auntie Valerie she had her gun out and the moment Lucy moved she'd pointed her gun at her, she thought Lucy was a rapist because of the neighborhood we were in, it wasn't until she saw Lucy's size that she put her gun away, a core memory like that doesn't just go away, unless Auntie agrees to put her gun away when she's not working, Alexander says I don't have to let Auntie see Lucy, not even a little, so far Auntie isn't willing to cooperate, if anything I'm staying away personally because I myself have become afraid that one day she will turn that gun on me, as are both my cousins, is it safe to leave now" says Cat
"they've isolated the janitor in question to the adult psych ward, all victims in this ward that are victims need to be identified and forms as well as possible rape kits sent to the LAPD crime lab for immediate testing, Paige your form will be sent to the Harris home tonight which is where you're staying for the foreseeable future, the federal judge was quite pissed" says David as Cat's jaw drops
"you'll be happy to know Doctor Francis and I reached a mutual diagnosis that explains her symptoms quite severe CPTSD, the Bipolar medication seems to have been messing with her logic, making her easily hoodwinked, even by the simplest things, while I wouldn't call her stable at the moment she's definitely in a more critical thinking mood and she's able to function just fine on the new medication" says Doctor Brown
"you can tell the judge himself, he's on his way down, he had just started his vacation when this came up, we're all getting in trouble for this, don't expect to get your vacation time this year if you haven't already taken it" says David
"you think I want to work here after this, the high up's in the hospital obviously got paid off for this, I made a huge commitment to the patients here, some have been here most of their lives and ONLY trust me or Doctor Francis to diagnose them and a few of them won't eat unless Doctor Francis or I have personally checked the food, I can't just leave them here, not after this" says Doctor Brown
"Cat let's go, get on my back" says Andre sitting down so Cat can get on his back
In David's cop car 5 minutes later
"honestly girls I'm just glad you're ok" says David
"Mr. Vega, you're not actually expecting me to live there are you, I want to be with Cat again, being there will be torture" says Paige
"Paige, we'll work something out, Cat means a lot to me, which means you also mean a lot to me" says Andre as the car starts moving towards Andre's house
"oh God, you're going to make me choose aren't you Andre" asks Cat
"no, but I'm not discussing it in front of a cop" says Andre
"Andre, I hope you know I won't arrest you or them, Tori's having a similar battle herself, she's afraid of the morality of it, she's afraid I won't understand, my mom didn't understand my tendency either, though she never understood why I stopped when I became a cop either, after what transpired I doubt the judge will care as long as Paige isn't being forced" says David
"what's being discussed here" asks Paige utterly confused
"it's a simple yet complex concept Paige, the kind that always went over your head, I'll explain it later" says Cat