The aftermath
Caitlyn sat angrily in her family's living space as her maids attempted to clean up the dirt and cuts on her face. She loved Grayson but was furious being told she wasn't allowed to visit the girl who saved her. How was she to give her thanks and gratitude now? Caitlyn didn't even know the girls name. The younger girl she assumed was her sister called her 'Vi'. Was that her name? It sounded silly. What kind of parent names their kid Vi? Probably a nickname in her case. But what was it short for? Violet. That had to be it. She definitely looked like a Violet. Well, from what Cait could remember. She paid the most attention to the girls striking light blue eyes that almost seemed gray. They looked sharp but at the same time soft. That was surely her best feature.
'Why am I thinking about her eyes? Get your mind out of the gutter this is crude and preposterous Cait!'
Caitlyn was quickly snapped out of her thoughts by her mother and Grayson entering the room. Cassandra looked stressed and Grayson seemed to be just as worse off. Cassandra took a seat beside Cait sighing and putting a hand on her head. "Tell Grayson everything that went down with your little friend, uh, what's her name?"
Cait blanked out for a second. Suddenly she forgot the name she came up with for the girl earlier. Darting her eyes across the room in panic she landed on the vase that resided on the table beside them. The beautiful purple flowers that seemed to be withering away. Violets.
'That's right. It was Violet.'
"Violet. I was outside when I saw Violet in the street. I hadn't seen her in awhile so I invited her inside with me to see Jayce's home so we could catch up. We looked around at his inventions and something blue fell to the floor and blew the place up. Violet shielded me so I wouldn't get hurt. She's a very selfless person. I wish to see her and thank her." Caitlyn told trying to seem as honest as possible.
Suddenly Grayson's face went pale. "Oh no. This is bad. I was trying to remember why that child seemed so familiar to me. Violet. That's Vander's daughter. It has to be. Oh god what did we get ourselves into? He's going to be pissed knowing his daughter got hurt on your hands Cassandra."
Cassandra's eyes grew wide at the mention of the name Vander. "Vander? As in the hound of the undercity Vander?"
Grayson nodded her head. "We need to try and make amends now. Vander rules down there and all the civilians follow his command. All he has to say is go after us and they'll follow. They don't mess around when it comes to fellow Zaunites. Especially children. If we don't apologize what happens after this is beyond me. Luckily I'm an old friend so maybe he'll be understanding with us."
Caitlyn was shocked. Just what kind of girl was Vi? It seemed like her father had to have some type of influence if Grayson and her mother were freaking out. But then again Caitlyn was a Kiramman. And the Kiramman's had a big influence in Piltover, so what was there to be afraid of?
Being uninterested in the rest of their conversation, Cait excused herself getting up to find something else to do. All this drama was making her anxious. To calm her nerves she went to her favorite place outside the family garden which, unironically, was filled with Violets growing everywhere. Violets were her mom's favorite flower hence the vase on the table. The calming atmosphere always made her anxiety lessen.
There was something really bothering her. Jayce. Jayce had always been like a brother to her. But now it seemed he was going to get in a lot of trouble for good reasons. That didn't sit right with Caitlyn. How could a man her family trusted so much turn out to be such a dangerous person? What was the purpose behind it all?
'I don't care what happens to him now. I almost died and Violet got very injured.'
Speaking of Violet, Cait still needed to find a way to visit her in the hospital. Her dad worked there so it wasn't going to be easy.
-
'Oh no! Come on wake up!'
A sweet voice rang in Vi's mind over and over again with the same sentence. Was it an angel calling out to her? Hazily she could remember a girl with blue hair. It wasn't Powder. The hair was darker. But then it hit her like a ton of bricks. The timid and petrified girl from the place they had been robbing. That's right. She had saved her from getting severely hurt by the blast.
Awakening from her concussed sleep, Vi was suddenly brought back to reality. Where was she? It didn't look familiar. She was in a strange bed with bandages on her body. But oh God did it hurt. It felt like her whole body was extremely sore. And her head hurt insanely bad. She looked around for signs of somebody she knew. Nobody. Just a nurse not paying attention. Where was Vander? And Powder? Why weren't they here to take her home?
In a panicked state, Vi attempted to get up from the bed. The nurse who had been slacking off noticed and called for a doctor. A man with dark blue hair and a moustache entered the room and took a seat right next to her.
"I see you've awaken Violet. I'm sure your very confused about what's happening right now." The man said taking notice to the girl looking terrified. The doctor didn't seem harmful. In fact Vi thought he seemed gentle. But who the fuck said he could call her Violet? The only people allowed to say that name were Powder and Vander. He wasn't either of them. "My names Tobias Kiramman. I'm the director of Piltover's hospital. There was an accident earlier today and you were involved in it. This will explain any pain or discomfort you might be feeling right now."
Of course she felt pain. Just look at her she was covered in bandages!
Vi didn't say anything back to him. She just stared and gave dirty looks not trusting this man especially since he said he was the director for a hospital in Piltover. Hell why was she even here in the first place? Shouldn't she be rotting in a luxurious jail cell in Stillwater right about now?
Tobias began to ask questions trying to get Vi to talk to him, "Can you tell me who your parents are? I'm sure they're very worried about where you are right about now."
Vi laughed. "Dead. They got killed by enforcers during the revolt."
He became quiet for a moment. That wasn't what he was expecting to hear. "Are you an orphan than? Is someone taking care of you that we can contact."
Vi was about tired of him asking all the questions. "How do you know my name? I didn't tell you that. My names Vi not Violet."
"Caitlyn told me everything. She said you are her friend named Violet and that she invited you upstairs to Jayce's place and that what happened was an accident out of not being properly supervised."
Caitlyn? Who the fuck is that? Vi had never met a Caitlyn before.
'Was that the blue haired girl? Did she really say all that to try and cover up for me?'
That's how he knew her name. But it didn't make any sense. Why would she lie for Vi and get her 'friend' in trouble? Vi was from the undercity and tried to rob his place. So why did Caitlyn care about what happened to her? Well if this 'Caitlyn' was giving the courtesy of lying for Vi, she might as well go along with it if it means she'll stay out of trouble. "Yeah. We had just been looking around amazed with all that guy had done. If I had known it'd be dangerous like that I wouldn't have gone in."
Tobias gave an empathetic smile and got up from the chair. "I'll be back to check up on you in a little bit. I need to catch up with somebody to find out what's going on."
Thank god. He was finally leaving.
Vi slumped back into her bed. She needed to get out of here somehow but it wasn't going to be easy. Nurses and doctors were everywhere and would most definitely stop her from escaping. Vander was probably looking around all over the lanes to see if Vi was ok right about now. And Powder. Poor Pow was probably traumatized from this whole fiasco. Yup. She absolutely needed to get out of here. And right away.
Vi began to strategize an escape route. But she couldn't stay focused. She kept hearing a faint noise coming from somewhere. Vi tried to ignore it but it kept continuing annoyingly. It was coming from outside the hospital window.
Curious and on guard, she got up and stumbled over to the window. It wasn't what she was expecting at all. The blue haired girl, no, Caitlyn, was trying to get her attention. Vi hesitantly opened the window and waited to see what she had to say.
"Geez. Took you long enough to notice. I thought for a moment maybe you had actually died." Caitlyn remarked sassily climbing into the room from outside. Luckily for her Vi's room had been on the bottom floor so it wasn't hard.
Vi was taken aback. "How'd you even know what room I was in? And why didn't you just come from inside cupcake?"
Cait blushed, "Cupcake? Are you crazy? What kind of name is that?"
"You're so sweet, like a cupcake. But don't deflect my questions. Answer them." Vi's tone changed from playful to defensive in a quick second. Like she was trying to scope the scene to see what this was all about.
Caitlyn rolled her eyes and helped Vi back over to the bed and then took a seat in the chair Tobias had been. "I'm not supposed to be here. Grayson and Mother wanted me to stay home and twiddle my thumbs. But I needed to see you were ok. I don't care if I get in trouble for this."
Vi still didn't understand it at all. Why did she care so much about if she was ok? "I- Why? I'm just a sumprat who tried to rob your friends place. You should stop and go back home. You don't need to get in trouble because of me."
Caitlyn took her hands and placed them against Vi's. "You don't get it do you Violet? You saved my life. If you hadn't jumped in front of me I would've ended up like you, or worse, dead. So no. I'm not going back home. And Jayce is not a friend of mine anymore. I don't care If I get grounded or locked away in my room for the rest of my life. And I don't care if you came from the under city. All I care about is being able to see that you're ok."
Vi was stunned. She hadn't really felt love like that before. Caitlyn and her were strangers yet she seemed hellbent on not leaving Vi's side. It felt nice knowing there didn't seem to be any ulterior motives behind this. For now she had somebody she could let her guard down around because Cait was on her side.
"Y'know, if you really want to make me feel better, you can help find a way to get me back down to The Last Drop." Vi proposed hoping Caitlyn would help her get back home.
Caitlyn made a face. She seemed conflicted. Must not be very rebellious. "How? I think I look too proper. Wouldn't it be hard for me to blend in down..you know..down where all the chaos goes on?" She asked referring to the way she was dressed in a outfit very reminiscent of her status as a Kiramman.
Vi thought for a moment. She was right. Caitlyn would stick out like a sore thumb trying to blend in to the lanes. And that Piltie accent wasn't helping. She eyed the room looking for anything to help the girls case. In the corner a clearly worn jacket resided. Must've been that stupid nurses.
"Get that coat and the pair of scissors from the table over there." Vi instructed. Cait followed taking the items and laying them out on the bed. Vi grabbed the scissors and motioned her to get closer. Caitlyn stood still as Vi began to cut at her dress making into a mangled mess. She then grabbed some gauze from the nightstand beside and began tying Cait's hair up in a messily done ponytail.
"Now put on the jacket and we're good to go. You look much less snobby now." Vi joked earning a scoff from Caitlyn hating that she thought of her as snobby.
Maybe she was dumb, but Vi hadn't thought about trying to escape from the window. If Cait got over here without attracting attention then it was probably their best bet to break her out of here.
Caitlyn helped Vi up from the bed and swung her arm around her shoulder. She then walked over to the window and the two climbed out trying to be as stealthy as possible.
"You do realize you're going to have to tell me how to get down there as I've never visited that lowly place before, right?" Cait reminded as she'd never been to or even seen the under city for that matter. Vi sighed, "Just get to the bridge that connects and I'll instruct you after that cupcake."
-
Vander made his way over to Benzo's shop internally freaking out. According to his kids, they had attempted to rob a person's place in Piltover which resulted in Vi getting injured and maybe even killed. And the worst part was that he had no clue where she was now or if she was ok.
"Vander. Didn't expect to see you here while it's still peak serving time." Benzo joked upon seeing his companion. He immediately became serious upon seeing the look on Vander's face. "Oh geez. Lay it on me. What's the damage?"
Vander sighed and rested his head on the shop counter.
"No clue. All I know is that my kids thought they could handle being stupid and now Violet is missing and potentially very hurt."
Benzo's eyes widened. "Ekko I think it's time you get back home for the day eh?" He asked instructing the child to head on out as this was a serious conversation. And on top of that Ekko really looked up to Vi. So he didn't need to be here to hear all this incase it went south.
Ekko nodded and grabbed his little box of things rushing outside leaving the two adults alone to finish conspiring.
"So is there need to keep this under wraps or are we spreading the word around?"
Vander shook his head back and forth. "No clue. Like I said, I don't know who's place they were at so I don't know if its better to stay quiet and look silently or get everybody else involved."
It killed him to not go and search for Vi right away, especially seeing how helpless and distraught Powder looked. Had it been a place from the under city it'd been solved by now and she would've been home without hesitation. But his kids just had to go for a place in Piltover. He thought all the stories he'd told taught them to know better than to go over there to the other side and be chaotic. Apparently not.
Benzo and Vander went back and forth with what they thought was the best course of action. They eventually settled on waiting to hear gossip from the streets about the place in Piltover even if that killed Vander. It was better not to start stuff if it didn't need to be started.