"Secrets"

Cat/Jade, hurt/comfort - Jade has noticed Cat being unhappy, and she is determined to get to the bottom of it.

The school day is over, and it is now day three of Cat sleeping over at Jade's house. Jade and Cat started dating a little over a year ago, and they've been friends even longer than that. All in that time, Jade has gotten to know plenty about Cat's family, including her brother. He has been known to be rather weird, do things that are unexplained that have often embarrassed the family in public, and other things that have had him in and out of the hospital. Lately Cat has been quiet about things going on at home, and Jade is becoming concerned. At the moment, Cat is in the shower, while Jade comes up with a way to get more information out of her. She comes into Jade's room dressed for bed, and towel drying her still damp hair, as she notices Jade watching her.

"Hey Jade."

"Hey."

Cat puts her towel away with the rest of her stuff, still curious as to what could be on her girlfriend's mind. Jade sat in the middle of her bed, twirling a pen in her hand, which was always a sign that she was thinking hard about something.

"Is there something you want to talk about?" Cat asked.

"Just thinking. The other day, my brother kept bugging me about letting him use my video camera to film himself doing stunts on his bike. I told him 'no' because the last time he almost left it in the rain."

"Almost?"

"Yeah, luckily I found it in time, and he didn't ruin it. Now he wants to use it again, and I'm not about to let that happen." Jade said.

"No, I don't blame you."

"So, how about you? Anything interesting going on at home?" Jade asked.

"Nothing out of the ordinary." Cat said, shaking her head.

Jade huffed as Cat sat at the edge of the bed, and Jade sat closer to her. She took Cat's hand in hers, getting her to look up in Jade's direction.

"Cat, you know you can tell me anything, right?"

"Of course." Cat answered.

"So, what's been going on at home? I mean you've slept here three nights in a row." Jade said, and Cat hung her head. " It's not that I don't love having you here, but..well don't your parents miss you?"

"Maybe." Cat shrugged.

"What's up?"

Cat let out a deep breath, still not looking at Jade, and she took off her sweater, revealing a few bruises on her arms. Jade immediately took her wrists to get a better look.

"Cat, what happened? Did your brother do this to you?"

"Yeah." Cat nodded.

Jade took Cat's chin in her hand, looking Cat in the eye. She looked like she was trying to hold back tears, while Jade brushed hair behind her ears.

"Tell me what happened."

"A few days ago, I came home, and my brother was yelling at my parents. They told me to go to my room, and they would take care of it. When I was walking down the hall, he was coming out of his room at the same time, and I bumped into him by accident." Cat stopped, letting out a breath before continuing. "He grabbed my arms, shaking me back and forth, yelling 'leave me alone!'. My dad had to pull him off of me, and they ended up making him go to the hospital."

Jade didn't say anything at first. She just rubbed Cat's back, and kissed her cheek.

"I'm sorry."

"He's still in the hospital, but I haven't felt much like being home. My parents are still arguing about what to do about him." Cat told her, while wiping away tears.

Jade took Cat in her arms, and Cat cried softly on her shoulder. They sat in silence while Jade continued to rock her back and forth. This was the best kind of comfort Cat could ask for. Of course talking about it helped, but when Jade let her guard down, and showed her soft side, Cat felt okay, no matter what it was that was bothering her.

"You can stay here as long as you like." Jade told her.

"Thank you."

"If you don't want me to tell my mom what's really going on, I won't. I can tell her your house is being fumigated or something."

Cat looked up at Jade, leaning into her forehead, and then kissed her cheek.

"Thank you."

The two of them laid back on the bed, while Cat snuggled up against Jade. She was happy to have a safe place to be while her parents worked to get things back to normal. She didn't have to fear getting hurt again or to have anybody else know about it. Jade was good at helping Cat even if she didn't want to show that cafetaker side of herself at school. For as long as Jade kept Cat's secret, she'd be willing to keep hers.