Chapter 2
Vi loved naps now. Before, she’d never had the time—or the luxury—to think about resting. There was always too much to do, too much at stake. But things had changed. Caitlyn, still on strict bedrest and weighed down by the haze of medication, slept for most of the day. And Vi, now her caregiver, often found herself lying beside her, dozing off too.
She’d tell herself it was to keep Caitlyn company, but deep down, she knew it was more than that. There was a comfort in the closeness, a selfish part of her that wished they could live like this—just the two of them, wrapped up in quiet moments of peace, far away from the noise and chaos of the world outside.
But it wasn’t long before Caitlyn started resisting her help.
“I can do it myself, Vi. I’m not a child,” Caitlyn snapped one morning, struggling to stand without swaying.
Vi knew the words weren’t meant to hurt, but they stung all the same. Caitlyn’s pride was like a wall between them, built high and solid, brick by brick. Every time Vi tried to help, Caitlyn saw it as another reminder of her own helplessness.
The breaking point came one afternoon when Vi was preparing to leave for a visit to Ekko. She’d barely made it out the door when she heard the sound of something—or someone—dragging down the stairs.
“What the hell are you doing, Caitlyn!?” Vi’s voice rang out, sharp with alarm as she turned to see Caitlyn clutching the banister, pale and visibly trembling.
“I need… I need you to stop somewhere before seeing Ekko,” Caitlyn said, her voice strained but determined.
“Caitlyn.” Oh no. She’s mad. “You’re not supposed to get up. Remember what happened last time you tried to leave bed without my help.”
Vi rushed forward, catching her just as her legs gave out. Caitlyn was gasping, her breath shallow and uneven, but even in her weakened state, she tried to muster a smile. “I’m fine, Vi. Really.”
“Fine? Are you kidding me? You can barely stand!” Vi barked, her grip tightening around Caitlyn’s waist as she steadied her. The anger in her voice was laced with something deeper—fear, frustration, guilt. “Do you remember what happened last time you pulled this stunt?”
Oh Caitlyn remembers perfectly. So does vi.
—————
Four days ago, Caitlyn had reopened her stitches trying to find Vi in the middle of the night. She’d made it halfway down the hall before the dizziness from her medication hit, sending her crumpling to the floor. Vi had found her moments later, blood seeping through her nightgown, tears streaking her face as she clutched at the wound. Vi had been so panicked she’d dropped the glass of water in her hand and carried Caitlyn to the doctor herself, breaking nearly every traffic law in Piltover in the process.
———
“I know Violet but I'm perfectly healed and the doctors are just keeping me on rest just for precaution not because I actually need it.” Vi rolls her eyes as Caitlyn giggles before having a thick stack of paper land into her hands, “anyways darling I need you to take this to the station.”
It was maybe a quarter of all the paperwork Caitlyn had done over the past few weeks. Vi looks up at her and Caitlyn’s smile slowly turns down into a more guilty look. “Oh… unless you don’t want to! Which is fine I can send a letter to Steb and he can get here in no time. You know what, I’ll do that instead.”
Caitlyn tries to grab the papers and Vi moves before she can grasp onto them. “Woah cupcake it’s ok, I’ll do it. I don’t mind, I could use some walking. I've been pretty lazy sleeping with you all day.” Vi jokes with Caitlyn and it gets another giggle from her.
Vi loves when Caitlyn laughs. It’s been tough for the both of them but Caitlyn has started to fester into a deep depression, not as bad as it was with Ambessa but something festered deep down inside her that Vi didn’t know how to help.
“Alright then…” Caitlyn says gently, “I think you may have to carry me back to bed before you leave though.”
Vi smiles and picks her up, bridal style as Caitlyn puts her head gently into Vi’s neck. Feeling the warmth that comes with it.
————
It’s been 3 weeks since the war. Caitlyn finally was put off of bedrest. She also had been taken off a good portion of her medication so she could finally “feel the world again.” This was the happiest Caitlyn’s been in a while. Until she realized that being put off of bedrest didn’t mean she was fully healed.
She still knocked into things, living in this home her entire life but having to relearn how to navigate it given her… injury.
She got intense spells of vertigo that caused her to fall if she stood up too fast, or walked too fast, or really did anything that her brain couldn’t keep up with. It became increasingly more and more frustrating. Until Caitlyn would just shut down.
Caitlyn was not a stranger to panic attacks. She’s had them since she was a kid given her high status and not wanting to make a complete fool of herself and dishonor her parents. But now it was different. It was memories that would make her break.
‘The gun. Maddie. Ambessa. The bullet. My neck. Oh gods. I was dead. I could have died. Jinx. My mother. It’s my fault. Oh gods I was going to die I was going to die.’
Unbenounced to Caitlyn she was actually saying all this out loud, well whispering it, and it wasn’t long before someone heard her.
“Caitlyn?” A voice caitlyn could hear from down the hall was calling her name. Caitlyn ducked down to hide from the voice.
It was 2 a.m. she was tucked into a tight closet, full of coats and clothes that were for community use in her household. She felt safe there, safe and hidden.
This was the first time Caitlyn has had a nightmare since the hospital, the medication she had been given at home made her so delusional she didn’t get nightmares, at least not this bad of one.
“Just give me a second I’ll come back to bed.” Caitlyn hopes this will steer whoever is walking up to the door to leave.
‘What if it’s Maddie. What if she somehow survived and decided to finish the job. Or ambessa. Or someone else who would want to see me suffer. Oh gods I’m going to die. They’re going to kill me.’
The door creaks open as Caitlyn starts to cry covering the neck of her neck and tucking her face into her bent knees.
She then hears the figure drop to their knees beside her and gently grasp into her back and head.
“Caitlyn…” it’s Vi. Sweet, caring, loving, Vi. Caitlyn is still rocking back and forth. She knows it’s Vi but she can’t stand to even face her. She’s so embarrassed, letting her emotions get the best of her.
Vi moves the hand up on Caitlyn’s back to cover her hands over her neck. She visibly flinches from the touch and Vi’s hands move away from her.
“Cupcake?” Vi moves her head down to try and get a glimpse of Caitlyn’s face but she doesn’t move. Vi repeats the motion moving her hand to Caitlyn’s neck. Caitlyn removes her hands to feel Vi’s, it reminds her she’s alive. That Vi is there. Vi will always be there.
Caitlyn finally lifts up her head and through the darkness of the closet she can still see the worry across Vi’s face. She slowly starts to crawl onto vi and into her lap. Tucking gently into Vi’s neck as her arms and legs wrap around Vi’s body clinging onto her like her life depended on it.
Vi held onto Caitlyn even tighter as she hoisted them both off the ground and carried her back to bed.
“Do you wanna talk about it?” Vi gently rubs the back of Caitlyn’s neck and they lay together. Both facing each other in bed.
“No.”
Vi audibally sighs and leans closer until their foreheads touch. It’s hard for Caitlyn to express what she’s feeling. She never had that outlet to just let go without feeling judgement or that she shouldn’t be able to express these negative emotions.
She’s a noble woman. The leader of house Kiramman. She needed to be strong and she knew if she told Vi all she was feeling…. She wouldn’t be able to hold it in any longer.
“It’s like she never got taken off of it.” Vi explains to Ekko. “Bed rest I mean. She just lays around, then when she gets up she can barely walk and gods forbid I help. I thought she was getting better but…” Vi rubs her face in defeat, “ I don’t know…” They’re sitting in Ekko workshop while Vi watches him fix a firelight hoverboard that was damaged from the war.
“She’s depressed, Vi. She can’t do her job, well I guess the “fun” part of it. I mean you said she liked being out of the house and she’s what? Been cooped up for one and a half months? I would go crazy too if all I could do was paperwork and meetings.”
Vi knew Ekko was right.
————
The days after Caitlyn’s panic attack were quiet, almost too quiet. She hadn’t spoken much about what had happened that night, and Vi didn’t press her. Still, there was a noticeable change in Caitlyn—a certain fragility to her movements, an occasional faraway look in her eyes.
Vi wanted to help, wanted to fix whatever was broken inside Caitlyn, but she didn’t know how. It wasn’t like patching up a wound or tightening the bolts on her gauntlets. This was deeper, messier.
Caitlyn, for her part, tried to keep herself busy. She’d taken to sorting through old case files at the dining table, surrounded by stacks of paper and half-empty cups of tea. Tobias would sit with her sometimes, silent as ever. Vi couldn’t quite figure him out—he seemed loyal to Caitlyn in his own quiet way, but there was a distance there, like he was more a shadow than a person.
One evening, Vi came home to find Caitlyn staring blankly at a case file, her hand trembling slightly as she held a pen.
“Hey, Cupcake,” Vi said, setting her gauntlets down by the door. She tried to keep her tone light, but Caitlyn didn’t look up.
“Did you eat?” Vi asked after a moment.
Caitlyn didn’t answer.
Vi walked over, pulling out a chair and sitting beside her. “Caitlyn. Did you eat?”
Finally, Caitlyn glanced at her, her eyes tired and red-rimmed. “I wasn’t hungry.”
“Cait, you’ve got to take care of yourself,” Vi said, her voice softer now. “You’re running on fumes.”
“I said I wasn’t hungry,” Caitlyn snapped, pushing the file away from her. The sharpness in her tone made Vi flinch, but she didn’t back down.
“Okay,” Vi said, leaning back in her chair. “But we both know this isn’t about food.”
Caitlyn’s expression wavered, the anger melting into something closer to despair. She looked away, her fingers fidgeting with the edge of the tablecloth.
“I don’t know how to do this, Vi,” Caitlyn admitted finally, her voice barely above a whisper. “I don’t know how to… be this person. This broken, useless version of myself.”
Vi reached out, placing a hand over Caitlyn’s. “You’re not broken. And you’re definitely not useless.”
Caitlyn shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes. “You don’t understand. You’re strong, Vi. You’ve always been strong. I’m supposed to be the one who’s put together, the one who has the answers. But now I can’t even walk across the room without feeling like the ground is going to swallow me whole.”
Vi’s grip on Caitlyn’s hand tightened. “You don’t have to be ‘put together’ for me. You don’t have to have all the answers. Hell, I don’t even know what I’m doing half the time. But I do know this: you don’t have to go through this alone.”
Caitlyn’s breath hitched, and she let out a shaky laugh. “You always know the right thing to say, don’t you?”
“Not really,” Vi said with a shrug. “I just know how much I love you. And I’ll be here, no matter what. Even if it means carrying you back to bed a hundred more times.”
Caitlyn smiled faintly at that, the corners of her mouth trembling. “You’re too good to me, you know.”
“Damn right I am,” Vi teased, leaning in to kiss her forehead.
Later that night, Vi woke again to find Caitlyn missing. Her heart sank as she got up, her footsteps echoing softly through the darkened halls. This time, she found Caitlyn standing on the balcony, staring out over the city.
The moonlight cast a silvery glow over Caitlyn’s figure, making her look almost ethereal. But when Vi stepped closer, she could see the tension in her shoulders, the way her hands gripped the railing like it was the only thing keeping her upright.
“Couldn’t sleep?” Vi asked gently, leaning against the doorframe.
Caitlyn didn’t turn around. “I keep seeing it. Over and over again. The war. Maddie. The gun. That moment when I thought I was going to die.” Her voice cracked on the last word, and she exhaled shakily. “It’s like it’s burned into my mind, and no matter what I do, I can’t make it go away.”
Vi walked over, standing beside her. “I know it’s hard. And I know it feels like it’ll never stop. But it will, Cait. It might not be today or tomorrow, but one day, it’ll hurt less. I promise.”
Caitlyn turned to look at her, tears glistening in her eyes. “How do you know?”
“Because I’ve been there,” Vi said quietly. “After I lost my parents, after everything that happened in the Undercity… I didn’t think I’d ever be okay again. But I had someone who believed in me, who didn’t give up on me even when I wanted to give up on myself.”
Caitlyn nodded slowly, her gaze softening. “And now you’re that person for me.”
Vi smiled, pulling Caitlyn into a hug. “Damn right I am.”
For the first time in weeks, Caitlyn let herself lean into Vi completely, her walls crumbling just a little more.
And for the first time in weeks, Vi felt like maybe, just maybe, they were both going to be okay.