Chapter Text
A glowing blue, a bright light — Caitlyn’s stunned by the flash of colour and the sight of the door to Jayce’s lab colliding with the opposite wall of the hallway. She stumbles back from the force of the explosion and the box in her hands clatters to the floor as she lands on the ground. Jayce hits the wall with a thud and Caitlyn doesn’t remember much else but the thundering sound of enforcers as they barge their way into the laboratory.
Magic, her parents had said, Jayce had been experimenting with magic. Caitlyn had heard stories about the Arcane before, about its power and destruction, about the chaos and the wars that had been fought both with it and for it. Heimerdinger had said that Piltover was a city of science, one that was founded to protect its people from the warmongering of mages and that the use of magic was strictly against its Ethos — and yet, somehow, Jayce had gotten away with it. More than he would have without her mother’s vouching, anyway.
Her father hadn’t been very pleased, questioning her mother’s statement of Jayce having passion for his crafts — “Ambition? Darling, he nearly blew up our daughter!” — but Caitlyn did not understand how any of this was Jayce’s fault in the first place. Experimenting is what scientists did, was it not? Should the main issue not have been that he had been robbed in broad daylight?
After the council meeting, after her mother had informed her that Jayce had been banished from the Academy and her father had muttered something about the Talis being a misfit in society, Caitlyn had taken just about every newspaper she could find and spent the whole day in her room combing through all the details.
The children that had been responsible for the explosion had just been a few rascals from the undercity, snooping around in Jayce’s lab to see what they could pawn off back home. A part of her feels pity for them, for the fact that people felt the need to do that in the first place, but a part of her keeps thinking about Jayce, about what he would do now, about what he even could do now that his entire life had been torn apart.
She flicks through the pages, studying every word and her gaze narrows in on one particular sentence: “After suffering severe injuries from the explosion, one of the burglars has been placed in Piltover General Hospital.” The paper had otherwise been brief, due to lack of information or a desire to not distress the public, Caitlyn wasn’t quite sure. Her parents hadn’t told her much else about the actual explosion itself, as opposed to the consequence it had on Jayce — and she hadn’t been able to pry much out of Grayson either, no matter how hard she had tried. That only left one option.
“Father, I believe it’s been a while since I’ve been able to shadow you at the hospital.” Her father’s eyes light up and she can see in the corner of her gaze the look that her mother gives her.
“Oh, it has been, darling! You know, we’ve just taken in that girl from the incident at the lab — she’s just about your age. Would you like to come along?”
Caitlyn feigns consideration, “Mm, I don’t see why not.” She ignores her mother’s glare.
Before Caitlyn had come to the conclusion that the only right path for her in the future was to become an enforcer, she had spent significantly more time with her father in the hospital. While her parents had always commended her for her desire to help people, their opinions quickly soured once they found out that she had her mind set on joining Grayson’s troops. They had reminded her time and time again what a dangerous profession being an enforcer was and had tried to guide her towards a safer alternative — Doctor, Lawyer, Councillor — but Caitlyn had been insistent.
She didn’t want to help with the aftermath of the wrongdoings, she wanted to be in the action, wanted to be there to stop it from happening in the first place. Yet, despite her desires, her parents had always tried to budge her off course; getting their friends to talk to her, bringing her to different events and letting her sit in on their work days — none of them had worked, but she had come to find that she particularly enjoyed the days she spent trailing behind her father in the hospital. It felt calm (most days) and she felt helpful, like her father had actually wanted her there to help and that she hadn’t been just relegated to a coffee-runner.
And so she trails behind him, a subtle smirk on her face as she clasps her hands behind her back and follows him into the room that had been recently occupied. The first thing that catches her attention, aside from the number of tubes running in and out of the girl’s face, is the bright pink mop of hair that sits on top of the patient’s head — it’s shaved on one side and swept over the other and Caitlyn wonders if this type of hairstyle is normal in the undercity.
The door closes behind them almost silently and Caitlyn immediately sits down by one of the chairs pushed up against the wall, setting down the small pouch hung over her shoulder on the other chair. Her father clears his throat as he walks over to the nearby sink and begins washing his hands, “I would like to apologise for my earlier comments about Jayce, darling, I know you were quite close to him,” Caitlyn can hear the sympathy rounding the edge of his words, “And I know that… it must be quite difficult to have one of your closest friends go through what he’s going through.”
He turns around and wipes his hand on a disposable towel. “I say this for your mother as well, as I know she can be a little bit more…hmm, covert with her emotions, but if you ever feel the need to talk to either of us, we are always going to be there for you, alright?”
When Caitlyn looks up to meet her father’s gaze, she’s met with the crinkling of his eyes and the soft, up-turned corners of his lips, “Thank you, father.”
He gives a low chuckle before he’s walking over to the bed, peeling back the blanket placed neatly over the patient and begins adjusting the position of her arms, working his way down to her fingers as he stretches them out.
“It’s a shame things played out how they did. From what I gathered from her family, Violet is quite the lovely girl,” her father hums, “I’m sure that if she were actually conscious, you two would make great friends.”
Caitlyn glances over, bringing her legs up and hugging her knees as she observes the steady up and down of the girl’s — Violet's — chest; she looks awfully tired for all the sleeping that she had been doing and Caitlyn’s eyes trace over the edge of her jaw, the curve of her nose and the fading bruises spread across her skin. Something stirs within the depths of Caitlyn’s chest and she’s glad that a single, deep sigh seems to break apart whatever that had been building up so suddenly. “How is she doing?”
Her father tilts his head back and forth, then sighs. “Thankfully, her vitals are stable for now and she gives us no reason to believe that’ll change. However, we’ll have to keep a close eye on her, coma patients are always a little tricky.”
Caitlyn hums in acknowledgement and she barely notices the way her father’s walking towards the door. It shuts behind him but a moment later it's pushed open slightly and he sticks his head in through the crack, “You staying here, princess?”
She blinks, head turning towards her father; she stares at him for a second before giving him a shallow nod — she’s sure she hadn’t been paying that much attention to the girl, “Yes,” Caitlyn pauses for a second, “Just keeping an eye on her.”
That earns a chuckle from her father, “Alright then, darling, have fun.” The door closes softly and Caitlyn turns her head back towards the bed. The steady beeping of the monitor fills the otherwise silent room.
The girl couldn’t have been much different in age from Caitlyn herself — fifteen, sixteen, maybe? She thinks back to the explosion, to the force at which it had blown the door off its hinges and the way that Jayce had been flung across the hallway like he weighed nothing and she can’t even imagine how it must have felt to be so close to the source itself.
Caitlyn wants to move closer, to study the girl properly under the light that shines in from the windows but she feels as if that’s not her place, like she doesn’t have any right to do so. If Caitlyn was in a coma, would she want some random girl observing her? So Caitlyn stays put, reaching over for her pouch and pulling out her notebook — she’d have to find other ways to occupy herself while she kept Violet company.
—
Caitlyn’s eyes follow her father’s hands as he explains to her all the different exercises and stretches that the nurses had been performing on the patient for the past couple of weeks; she picks up Violet’s other arm tentatively and she’s almost surprised at how easy it is to move it about. Whenever she’d walked past or came to pay her new friend a visit, peeking through the windows of the door, she would almost always see a nurse working away at Violet’s limbs.
“And why is it important that we move her limbs about like this, darling?”
Caitlyn looks up at her father as she answers, “To prevent muscle atrophy.”
“That’s right. It’s critical that we stimulate the muscles with exercise at least twice a day, especially for someone her age — the last thing we would want is for her muscles to atrophy before she wakes up. Prevention of atrophy also helps with the prevention of infection and other nasty things that might creep up on her.”
Caitlyn hums in acknowledgement as she copies her father — bending and rotating the arm at the elbow, working her way down to her fingers before she gently lifts the arm at the shoulder joint.
“And in about an hour or two, do you know what we’ll do?”
“She needs to be moved?”
“Yes,” Tobias nods, “I’ll get a couple of nurses in here and we’ll shift her about so she doesn’t develop any bedsores. Now…” he sets down Violet’s arm and Caitlyn follows suit, “How are her vitals looking?”
Caitlyn turns to face the monitor beside her as she reads off the chart, “Heart rate is 62 beats per minute and blood pressure is 106 over 72, which means she’s stable.”
Her father’s lips curl in a proud smile and he nods, “That’s right. She’s been doing rather well for the past couple of weeks and I have no doubt that won't change anytime soon. I’m sure a part of that is because my helper has been absolutely excellent,” he gives her a wink, “Now, I’ve got a few other patients to check in on so feel free to stay here and keep chatting to her if you so wish, alright? I think it’d be good for the both of you.”
Caitlyn remains standing by Violet’s bed even as her dad leaves and her eyes travel from the girl’s slightly suspended feet to the breathing tube running into her nose. The surface of Violet’s palms had felt so rough underneath her own and her skin had been littered with so many scars that Caitlyn had begun to be concerned of Violet’s wellbeing aside from the explosion. She wanders back to the wall and pulls out the chair she’d been sitting in whenever she visits Violet towards the bed before making herself comfortable in it. She produces her notebook from her pouch and begins scribbling down little notes and sketches as she listens to the steady beeping of her patient's monitor. The previous page had been filled with the necessary things needed to take care of a coma patient that her father had very gladly told her over dinner the prior evening but she flips the page over and writes:
Talk to her
She scratches the words down and underlines it, and then underlines it again for good measure and simply stares at the phrase for a while. She looks up at Violet and her lips part for a moment before… she presses them together and shakes her head and she feels almost silly for being so hesitant to talk to her — it’s not like anyone will hear her and even if she is a little awkward, Violet isn’t going to judge her now, is she?
—
“Oh! Good evening, darling!” Caitlyn turns around at the chirp that comes from the door and she stops writing for a second to wave at the woman. Nurse Ruth’s appearance is much more welcome than the sheets of homework Caitlyn has strewn in front of her and an involuntary smile grows on Caitlyn’s face as she watches the stout woman make her way across the room.
“Good evening, Nurse. How are you today?”
“Well, I’m just fine — haven’t seen you in a while though. I’m glad to see you’ve started shadowing your father again!”
Caitlyn nods, not that the woman can see as she busies herself with replacing the hanging bag above Violet’s bed, “Yes, I’ve been having a bit more time after school and my parents have been causing a ruckus about the Innovator’s Competition more than usual this year so I’ve been steering clear of them.”
“Ah, I see,” Nurse Ruth chuckles, giving Caitlyn a cheeky grin, “So you’ve sought the presence of little young Violet here instead?”
Caitlyn laughs, her eyes quickly scanning Violet’s face, “Something like that, yes.” The bruises and scratches that had been there previously were beginning to heal up nicely and while Caitlyn is glad, her excuse for staring at Violet’s face for prolonged periods of time is slowly disappearing along with them.
“Well, honey,” the nurse drags out her words and when Caitlyn looks up at the woman, there’s a strange sort of suspicion in her eyes. “I’m sure she really appreciates you being here for her, even though you two might be strangers.” She sighs, a little dramatically, “Shame she’s asleep, I’m sure her words would have been as sweet as her face is, don’t you think?”
Caitlyn swallows and clears her throat, looking back down at the desk that her father had specifically put in the room for her, “My father says that he’s sure we would have gotten along.”
“Did he now?” the nurse laughs, “I don’t doubt him for a second, your father’s got very good intuition.”
—
It takes her a few weeks to come around to the concept of talking to Violet. Small mumbles at first, deep breaths and constant convincing that if someone walks in, they will not think she is insane.
“I…” Caitlyn exhales deeply and looks down at her notebook, “I’m… sorry about Jayce and his magic stuff.” She shuts the book, placing it on the nearby table before she draws her legs up and hugs her knees. “I don’t really know what you would be like if you were awake, or what you’d say, or if you’d even speak to me and if you wouldn’t, well then… I apologise because I don’t think I’m going to leave any time soon.” Caitlyn lets out a quiet huff of a laugh, “I just know that if I was in a coma — and by some miracle, you could hear me right now — that I think I would want someone to talk to me. Maybe that’s just me, though.”
Caitlyn tucks a strand of her hair behind her ear, “Well, I think I should introduce myself. My name is Caitlyn uh– Caitlyn Kiramman and my mother is a councillor and my father is the surgeon general here at the hospital. I like uh…” Caitlyn’s brow furrows as she racks her brain for something remotely interesting.
“I like shooting and uh… Well, I don’t really tell anyone anything about me– it’s usually always about my parents or some rather shallow questions about school and how I’m doing. The only person I really ever talked to was Jayce but… he hasn’t been around much recently with the whole banishment thing and I don’t think my parents would be very happy if I snuck out to see him.”
Caitlyn’s hands rub up and down her shins nervously as she tries to find her next words, “I don’t think he… meant to hurt anyone and I don’t want to sound selfish but I was a little angry with everything, with you I suppose for causing it to all happen but I know that it’s not your fault and I can only assume you were doing what was necessary to survive in the undercity– which I understand. Well… I don’t think I’ll ever understand given my… uh,” Caitlyn scratches her jaw slightly and her eyes trail over Violet’s face, “My rather privileged upbringing but survival of the fittest and such– not that I’m comparing you to animals or anything– I–” She groans and buries her face in her hands and Caitlyn can feel the way her face warms up her palms. “I’m sorry, I usually think a little more before I speak but I suppose since you can’t really respond to me I’m being… a little lackluster.”
The clock ticks by but Caitlyn doesn’t notice as she talks about how long it’s been since she’s seen Jayce and how he had really been the only once she had ever properly opened up to, apart from Grayson she supposes, and how her parents had not been pleased to find out that she had been part of the explosion. But then the mention of Grayson causes her to explain who the woman is and how she had been mentoring Caitlyn for a number of years. She speaks about how admirable of a person Grayson is and how Caitlyn always used to get a little nervous when she was around her and how when they had first met, Caitlyn’s stomach would always churn away and she could never quite tear her eyes away from the sheriff’s broad, solid shoulders or her squared face. It hadn’t meant anything at the time — Grayson was about four times her age when they first met — but after that day, she had always found that her eyes always wandered a little more between the girls in her class.
It comes up to just under two hours before Caitlyn notices the darkening skies outside of the window and her eyebrows quirk up as her eyes flit to the clock on the wall. She sighs as she stands up, packing away her little notebook before she hangs the bag over her shoulder.
“If the case is that you can hear me, well then, I apologise. It was… surprisingly nice talking to someone like you so I hope I didn’t bore you too much.” Caitlyn gives Violet a strained smile and her hand comes up to wave goodbye but she quickly drops it as she realises how ridiculous she probably looks. “I’ll see you in a couple days, Violet.”
—
Caitlyn’s eyes float up to her door as a knock sounds on it and after a moment of consideration, tells whoever it is to come in. Her father sticks his head in through the crack of the door and flashes her a soft smile before he quietly makes it to the foot of her bed; he sits down, placing a hand on his daughter’s knee before tilting his head at her.
“How have you been, darling?”
Caitlyn shuts the book in her hand and lays it down beside her, letting a breath sift through her lips as she bobs her head back and forth, “I’m okay, I don’t really have much to do without Jayce.”
Her father sighs and rubs her knee comfortingly, “I know, princess, I’m sorry things turned out the way they did.” He turns around to look at the door before directing his attention back towards Caitlyn, “Me and your mother had a little chat the other day about Jayce and as much of a danger that he posed to you that day… we still realise that he has been an integral part of your life for quite a while now so if you wish to talk to him or anything of that nature, I’m sure mum and I can arrange something, alright?”
Caitlyn’s eyes light up, widening as she looks up at her father, “Really? Are you sure–?”
He laughs and nods, giving her knee a little pat, “Yes, yes, but hold on, that wasn’t why I came in here. We can talk more about Jayce when your mother is here too.”
Caitlyn clears her throat and nods, unable to help the way the corners of her lips curve up just slightly, “Of course, of course — what did you need?”
“I…” Tobias seems to contemplate his words deeply, “It’s about Violet.”
Caitlyn’s eyebrow quirks up but she stays silent.
“Now, it’s nothing to worry about because it’s all just,” he waves his hands about, “up in the air right now but some of the guys higher up… don’t like Violet being housed in the hospital for this long especially because of the chances of her waking up and such…”
“So they want to kick her out?” Caitlyn’s eyebrows furrow and she feels her fist clenching in the fabric of her clothes, “That’s ridiculous!”
“I know, I know,” Tobias nods understandingly, “I’ve ensured that nothing happens for now but I thought I would let you know since you visit Violet a lot and I can tell you’ve grown quite fond of her presence.”
Caitlyn ignores her father’s observation, casting it aside just for this moment, “Why do they want to move her?”
“Ah–” Tobias huffs and scrunches his face up in thought, “It’s ridiculous, really — prejudice, mostly and while yes, they did blow up a building in a rather violent way, simply because Violet is from the undercity does not mean she’s not entitled to the same level of care that Piltovans have access to.” Tobias stands up with a huff and gives Caitlyn’s hair a little ruffle, “That’s what I argued anyway. Don’t worry about it though, I’ve got it all covered.”
Tobias turns to leave and just as the door closes, Caitlyn imagines the trouble she’d be in if she used her sharpshooting skills for… the greater good.
—
The school bag lands with a thud on the floor and Caitlyn huffs as she throws all of her weight down onto the chair and she’s sure that if Violet was not in a coma, that the sound would have woken her up. Her hands come up to cover her face.
“I am failing school, Violet, I’m failing school and I cannot believe it!” she cries, shaking her head in despair, “I got a 97! A 97– That’s ridiculous! I can’t even begin to imagine what my mother is going to say because she has not been in a good mood recently.” Caitlyn stands up and begins pacing the room, arms across her chest as she rattles on, “She was definitely not happy when she had to accompany me to visit Jayce the other day, and she was certainly not a fan of all the soot and grime on his face and then there was the Innovator’s competition which, according to her, could not have gone worse!”
She stops at the end of Vi's bed and takes a moment to observe the steady up and down of the girl's chest. She finds that her own breath starts to fall into rhythm with Violet's.
“Since my parents are no longer Jayce’s patrons, they figured that it would be a brilliant idea to find a new creative mind to ‘foster and grow’ at the Innovator’s competition– it’s this like engineering competition down in the undercity — not that– you wouldn’t know that considering you grew up there– nevertheless,” she waves her hands in front of her face as if to brush away the side thoughts. “But instead of finding their new prodigy, this small,” she gestures a sort of ball shape with her hands and squints at it as if she is really holding it, “monkey looking contraption rolls out and apparently explodes and sprays glitter all over everyone, including my parents!”
Caitlyn opens her mouth– and then closes it– and then opens it again, “And–” She quietens down significantly and scratches the back of her head gently, searching for the right words for her confession, “I… may have… perhaps snuck… a girl into my room the other day…” Caitlyn lets the words stew in the air for a few moments and the realisation that she had just told an unconscious person one of her worst secrets dawns on her. Her face feels bright hot. “And my mother, by chance, may have found out from the fact that Amirah… ran into the gardener. Anyway.”
Caitlyn takes a deep breath in and closes her eyes momentarily before opening them to look Violet in the eyes as if she could look back, “Conclusion: my mother is not happy and when she finds out that I did not get full marks on this test, I will be done for.” She takes a minute to calm herself before she starts making her way back to her chair and plops down in it.
“On a more positive note, my visit with Jayce went alright. I can tell that he is not… happy with his current situation and I wish there was more I could do to help– he’s always been there to help me whenever I needed it and not being able to repay someone I consider basically my brother is quite,” she wrings her hands together and sighs, “frustrating. But there’s not much I can do, I’m not even an adult and the only adults holding any power are my parents and were it not for my relationship with Jayce, they would not want to associate with the Talis family at the current moment. However, he did mention that one of the students at the Academy approached him — Viktor, I think his name was — and he seemed rather fond of him, so I suppose not all things are going downhill for him.”
Caitlyn sits in silence for a moment, pondering her next words, “As for Amirah… I didn’t actually tell Jayce about her so I suppose that you’ll be the first to hear it this time.” There’s a pause and Caitlyn’s lips curl into a little smirk, “Don’t you worry though, you don’t have to be jealous just yet,” a laugh slips out of her and she tips her head back and forth in satisfaction over her own joke, “I don’t think… it’ll last. But I say that for all of my… flings, as people call it — not that it occurs very often. Relationships require communication and understanding social cues to an extent where you can charm your subject, at least a little, and for me… that has not always been the easiest. Regardless, not to toot my own horn, but I wouldn’t say that I’m the worst looking individual and obviously the Kiramman name comes in assistance, not that I flaunt it about. Girls usually are only interested in me to see… my parents, my house, how I live, my room — they always rattle off some expectations they had about my lifestyle and none of them really ever seem interested in me… so. It’s a shame and while I would wish that someone would like me as Caitlyn, rather than Kiramman, the brief moments of warmth always do give me a little bit of hope for what I could maybe have in the future.”
Caitlyn decides to ignore the way her eyes linger on Violet's face as she speaks, “This all makes me seem like such a hopeless romantic but… that’s fine, I suppose. I don’t mind what you think of me.”
—
“Who are you?”
Caitlyn’s head snaps around at the sound of the voice by the door and her eyes widen as she sees a little girl and what she presumes to be the girl’s father entering the room. The chair she’s sitting on scrapes against the floor as she shoots up, clearing her throat as she fumbles with closing her notebook, “I– uh, my name’s Caitlyn–”
“What’s a Piltie doing in Vi’s room?” The girl has short, blue hair and she’s speaking to Caitlyn like she’s some strange, disgusting extraterrestrial being, “Are you some sort of secret admirer or? Well, let me tell you, you aren’t being very secret.”
All the blood in Caitlyn’s body rushes to her face and she feels a large knot of embarrassment tie itself in her throat, “No! I– I’m just… taking care of her.”
The child’s eyes narrow sceptically, “You aren’t a doctor though, you’re a child.”
Caitlyn wants to bite back with some sort of retort mentioning the fact that the girl seems to be about ten years old herself but she refrains, “Well– my father, Dr. Kiramman, has taught me how to properly care for Violet in the time she’s been here–”
“Eugh, don’t call her that– and were you talking to her? You know she’s unconscious, right?”
Finally, the girl’s father speaks up, stern with his words as he gives her a little nudge, “Powder, that’s enough.”
Caitlyn clutches her notebook tightly to her chest and closes her eyes for a brief second, “I– uh, my father says that speaking to comatose patients helps stimulate brain activity and in some cases has been found to help them wake up–”
The child — Powder? Caitlyn’s not quite sure why anyone would name their child that — raises her eyebrow and tilts her head, “Alright, nerd.”
“Powder,” the man grumbles, his brow furrowing before he looks back up at Caitlyn with a soft smile, “I’m sorry about her.” He steps forward and extends his hand out, “I’m Vander, Vi’s dad and this,” he nods his head towards the girl, “is her little sister, Powder.”
Caitlyn takes his hand and shakes it, watching the way his hand engulfs hers, “Nice to meet you, sir. I apologise, I didn’t mean to intrude, it’s just that–”
Vander laughs and shakes his head, “Don’t worry about it, I’m glad someone’s keeping Vi company while we aren’t here. You said you were Dr. Kiramman’s daughter?”
Caitlyn nods, hands clasped in front of her, “Yes, sir — I shadow him regularly–”
Both of their heads turn towards the rattling noise that comes from Violet's bed and Caitlyn’s eyes widen as she watches Powder just barely catch the toppling IV pole; Caitlyn’s heart jumps up into her throat and she can just sense the glare that Vander gives his daughter behind Caitlyn.
“Powder, sit down.”
“I didn’t do anything!” comes the whine and Caitlyn resists the urge to turn around and quirk her eyebrow at the young girl. Despite her refutation, Powder mumbles an apology under her breath, giving the pole one last look before dragging over a chair and setting it up next to Violet's bed. The girl picks up Violet's hand and pulls out a pen and before Caitlyn can interject, the cap pops off and the ink meets skin.
“So,” the man begins and Caitlyn forces herself to tear her eyes away from the pair of siblings, “Is this like a one off thing or do you visit regularly?”
“I– uh, I visit a couple times a week,” Caitlyn responds, squeezing her hands together nervously. “I help my dad with her stretches and just generally monitor her.”
“Ah, I see,” Vander nods his head and smiles, “That’s good to hear. We try coming at least once a week and the boys usually come too but they’re doing community service right now because they, you know, blew up a building.”
“Ah-ha,” Caitlyn tries to laugh along but it gets caught in her throat so she coughs to cover it up and looks down sheepishly, “I just wanted to uh– apologise for Jayce.”
Vander tilts his head and Caitlyn feels herself shrinking under his gaze.
“Jayce Talis, it was his laboratory that the explosion occurred in– well, it was technically my parents’ but that’s getting into the specifics.”
Vander waves his hand dismissively and shakes his head, “Nothing to apologise for, in fact, they should be saying sorry to you — there was no reason for them to be rummaging around in a random lab here in Piltover and I have told you guys that, haven’t I?” His gaze flits over to Powder and Caitlyn watches as she slowly turns her head towards them, eyes narrowed as she observes the two silently. Caitlyn’s eyes drift over Powder’s form, hunched over Vi's arm like it was a treasure and she winces as she watches the ink spread into the cracks of Violet's skin.
“It was Little Man’s idea,” she mumbles before turning back. Powder’s display of clouds and flowers had spread up to Violet’s elbow and Caitlyn really isn’t sure whether she should be allowing this or not. She decides to push down her conflicting feelings and turns back to Vander.
“I– he–” Caitlyn stops herself before she speaks any further; is making up excuses for Jayce’s experiment going to solve anything or is she simply going to dig herself deeper with her Piltie reasons? “It must be difficult for you as Violet’s family to deal with everything that has happened over the past couple of months–”
Vander shakes his head and Caitlyn wishes that she could burrow herself deep within the floorboards, “What’s done is done, can’t go back in time now and reverse our mistakes.” His hand lands briefly on her shoulder as he gives her a warm smile, “And for the record, Violet’s friends usually call her Vi.”