Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high
There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream, really do come true

It'd been three weeks since that day.

In fact, if you wanted to be precise, it had been 20 days, since that day. It had been 20 days since that mess of tangled bed sheets, the walk of shame hours afterwards, and the smudged lipstick. Cat knew that because of the numbers on the little window of the white stick she held in both shaking hands, the numbers that told her she was about a month gone.

And while she was glad she knew, Cat would have been much happier in her state of blissful ignorance, only pausing to think about that moment when she saw him, when a flush of pink swept over her pale cheeks, when her heart skipped a vital beat.

Her emotions swirled around so quickly that she didn't have a chance to process them herself, but she never really could tell whether it was because of hormones from...that thing that had chosen her to inhabit, or whether it was just her being herself, because it wasn't too much of a stretch between the two.

But the pain cut just that little bit deeper, stung a little bit stronger, and the hurtful comments stuck to her like glue. And happiness? Oh, she was just a little ray of sunshine when she felt like it, and everyone she passed got a dose of vitamin D as she shone down on all the unhappy people, sharing her joy and delight at being in this wonderful world.

A knock on the bathroom door pulled Cat from her thoughts, and she realized that she had been staring at the little pink plus sign for quite some time now. She threw the stick in the trash can, encased in a tampon wrapper, and washed her trembling hands carefully, first lathering with soap and then sighing as the warm water lapped over her knuckles.

Though the young girl was absolutely petrified of the future, a rush of excitement ran through her, and a thrill shot down her spine. She had a secret - something no-one knew about. How long would she keep this one? Not long, Cat thought, staring at her tummy in the mirror of her bedroom. Squinting at her reflection, she was sure her once flat stomach rounded and bulged conspicuously.

Cat pushed the thought out of her mind. She was going to be a Mommy. And she was so excited.

The next morning, the news came crashing down on Cat, just as her vomit hit the bathroom floor. She clung the the toilet bowl and bitterly regretted missing a few of those white pills that her mother gave her. They blended with the other pills her mother liked to give her - the ones she called her happy pills.

Still, she wiped her mouth and spat into the sink, turning the faucet on and brushing away the last of the taste with her toothbrush. Her stomach did somersaults as she breathed in deeply, trying her best to keep the rest of her breakfast down. If she minded much, it didn't show on her grinning face. In fact, her cheeks were hurting a little and she tried her best to keep her face straight. She couldn't help smiling, though.

Something in his face, his warm brown eyes, made her happy. It made her knees feel weak and her head light from a fluffy feeling she could only describe as adoration. So she batted her doe eyes and she smirked her pouty lips until that one night when he finally gave into her demands.

What he had said afterwards had knocked the breath out of her, but she seemingly forgot about his offhand remark about it being a "great night, but can never happen again" as she skipped into school, happily smiling at all of her friends standing in front of the lockers. While Cat knew she would have to tell the boy soon about this, about her, she decided to hold off, biting her lip and staring at him with her.

The venom that pulsed through her as she thought of the other girl's face shocked Cat to the core, and truthfully, she began to feel quite sick again. This girl was her best friend. Why did the thought of her icy blue eyes staring up at...well, if she were to be perfectly honest, her boyfriend, enrage her so much?

Cat's cheeks darkened to a deep red as she blushed profoundly, upon coming to the final realization that she, indeed, was in the wrong. After all, was she not the one who had shared a bed with someone else's boyfriend?

Was she not the one who now held the offspring of her best friend's boyfriend?

A squeak escaped from Cat's mouth.

She had betrayed her best friend in the worst way of all. She had taken her insecurities, the ones that she had listened to on those rare rainy days, and made them into a reality.

Did that make her a bad person?

Cat's head hurt and she shook it, trying to get the thoughts out of her head. Trying to get the words that Jade had used to describe Tori all those times, out of her head. Was she those words now? Or, more specifically, was she those definitions, now?

Pushing the thoughts out of her head, Cat skipped off to her first lesson. No matter what she did, no matter how hard she concentrated, those words continued to float around in her mind, swirling and sticking to her.

Slut.

Gank.

Bitch.

Two faced.

"Ugh!" Cat groaned, leaning back on her chair. Sikowitz gave her an indulgent glance, and puts a finger to his lips.

"Quiet, or leave my-!" He begins, as Cat turns on her heels and begins to leave the room. "Where in the name of Nancy are you going?!"

"I need some time, okay!" Cat slams the door behind her, and knowing that Sikowitz would simply continue his lesson in a moment or two, let herself out of the school, slipping out of the parking lot and making it all the way home before breaking down. Her mother would be away until Thursday, three days away, and her father wouldn't be home until very very late in the evening, quite possibly drunk, so Cat let the tears flow freely while she could.

Once she could stop crying for a moment, just long enough to wipe her eyes and blow her nose, she heard a knock on the door. Cat was well aware of the fact that she looked like a hot mess, and that her eyes would look swollen no matter how much makeup she piled on.

Praying it was a salesperson, Cat gingerly opened the door on the latch, peeking her head around to make sure it wasn't a psycho killer waiting to get her. When she saw those angry blue eyes, Cat almost wished it was a serial killer.

Hell, if she told Jade about that night 20 short days ago, she probably would turn into a serial killer, and Cat wouldn't blame her. She was a lousy friend, and she was all those words she was thinking of earlier. Jade made a face that could only be interpreted in one way; I'm waiting.

Cat smiled weakly and opened the door, taking another deep breath. "Hi, Jade," she says, her voice cracking at the end as she manages to keep a lid on her emotions. Not a very tight lid, but a lid that stopped the tears from flowing once again.

Jade opens her arms, and Cat only hesitates for a moment before falling into them. She feels truly dreadful, and yet she can't help but feel resentful. Not only does Jade get to have Beck, but she gets to be the best friend a girl could ever have, and not only was Cat the worst friend in the world, Beck had told her that she basically mean nothing to him, just something to keep the bed warm for Jade.

Like a mother and a child, the two embrace. Cat feels Jade's hand at her scalp as her fingers rake through the mess of vaguely red hair, and she closes her eyes, letting herself forget about the faint fluttering in her stomach, about the lingering nausea, about the incessant feeling of guilt that had been eating away at her tainted soul all these days and sleepless, restless nights. "Shh," Jade comforts, resting her cheek on the smaller girl's head. "Everything will be better soon."

A thousand scenarios flash through Cat's mind at that specific moment, but she selects just one, carefully thought out scene that she chose to act out. After all, acting was something that came naturally to Cat, and it was the only familiar thing, apart from Jade, that Cat had going for her.

A tiny lie wouldn't hurt in the grande scheme of things, anyway, would it? Would it really hurt to tell a little white lie? Cat decided no very quickly, and before she got the chance to let her mouth say something different, her lips formed the quiet sentence: "I forgot to take my pills this morning, that's all."

Jade nods silently, and then goes into Cat's bathroom cabinet, where she tips two shiny pink tablets onto her hand, and then fills a crystal glass with some ice cold water, handing them both to Cat. Cat hadn't quite expected this gesture, and shocked, didn't quite know what to do.

Wondering the implications of taking double the dose she should be, Cat didn't give her mind too much of a chance to wander any further, downing the pills in one sip of the chilly ice water. Double happiness? Cat thought happily. She seriously needed that, she thought. She gives Jade a tight lipped smile and forgets all about bad things, thinking maybe the pills were finally having some affect over her thoughts.

The school nurse couldn't help her, the therapist lost her temper, the hospital said she was simply one of those children, and the institution assured her parents that these pills would sort out that naughty brain of hers in two shakes of a lamb's tail.

Safe to say, they hadn't, and Cat remained as strange as usual. It hurt Cat to think of her parents desperately palming her off on different doctors. Why couldn't they accept her as she was? They accepted her brother, screaming and all. Why couldn't they accept their daughter believed in unicorns and thought deep down, everyone was good?

Cat's world was a happy place. Sometimes she wished that her parents would join her in her own private world, and they would be happy too, not giving her the smile that she gave Jade, one that simply said she didn't know what in the world to say and wasn't going to try and figure it out.

In that moment of madness, Cat knew one thing for sure.

She could tell no-one about the baby inside of her. No-one was to know about him or her. In fact, it would be best if even she forgot about it. She could go back to being happy and carefree, and Jade wouldn't need to get hurt, and she wouldn't have to worry about baby cribs or dropping out of high school and failing and ruining her whole life, because if she forgot, if she truly and wholly forgot about this baby - what baby? - then it would go away.

Cat was true to her word, and things remained the same. When she got up in the morning, she blamed her unwavering sickness on dinner the previous evening, giggling helplessly about the dangers of frozen microwave meals. When she felt a fluttering or a kick in her tummy, instead of placing her hand tenderly on her bump, she would frown and say she was hungry, or that she was nervous. Those flutters in class were obviously because of nerves. They weren't kicks; they were butterflies, silly.

Her weight gain was trickier to place blame on, and she would wear baggy hoodies and cute jumpers that stretched over her swollen belly, and she wore boots to cover her god-awfully swollen feet that ached so badly because of all the extra walking she was doing, of course. And she was walking more.

Every week when she stepped on those scales after her hot Friday bath, she would watch the dial land on an even bigger number, she bit her lip and got her running clothes on, plus a sweatshirt to conceal the unthinkable. Her mother did not notice, nor did her father, and Cat continued to pretend as if nothing had happened...as if she wasn't harboring a tiny little fugitive.

In the sixth month of Cat's...Six months after Cat's "fornication" with Beck, Cat had convinced herself that she'd all but forgotten about the little person growing inside of her. Only in moments of weakness when she was lost in her own world, would she find her hand sitting upon her stomach, or both hands cradling her bump tenderly, silent tears falling from her eyes, knowing that something would eventually happen, that soon enough this thing wouldn't be hidden by baggy jumpers or diversion of people's eyes.

Her back ached terribly and she would feel faint in the middle of class, but she always had an excuse.

I forgot breakfast, oopsies!

I must've screwed up my meds again, silly me.

I think I have a virus, I feel a headcold coming on. I'll just go home.

Cat spent most of her time trying to avoid her best friend, spending lunch and break in a toilet stall, either desperately trying to get her work done so she could just scrape through her classes or playing Bejeweled on her iPhone, which seemed to make the time pass in the slowest way possible. Jade, being like a bloodhound when she felt like it, often tracked Cat down. She would simply lean on the stall door and talk to Cat, while Cat tried to stop the tears from flowing, knowing that Jade would open her arms and she wouldn't be able to stop herself from wrapping herself around Jade like a little baby monkey.

And then Jade would feel a little sharp thump on her own stomach, and the whole story would pour out of Cat's mouth, and she would be in big trouble.

"Just tell me what's wrong," Jade begs in a hushed whisper, pausing to glare at the girls daring to enter the girl's bathroom when something this important is going on. "It doesn't matter. Whatever it is that's wrong, I'll help you."

Cat entertains the idea of telling her the whole story, starting off with Cat telling Beck that he was being silly, pushing her away, but Cat wanted to live for a little while longer, so she held off.

Holding her breath, Cat opens the stall door. Keeping her face a blank canvas, she blocks the entrance of the school bathroom, making sure no girls could possibly invade her safe place. Jade watches with a masked interest, careful not to show her emotions on her face. She knew that something serious was about to be revealed to her, and she was ready to help Cat. She'd had enough of being shut out.

Reminding herself again to keep her face blank no matter what, Jade touched Cat's cold arm. "What is it, Cat?"

The girl now feels smaller than ever, and she flips her red hair over her shoulders, moving it out of her way. She gives a small, cynical smile, and unzips her hoodie, letting it drop to the floor. Jade is confused for just a moment, before she takes a good look at Cat, and is about to tell her to knock it off and tell her what was wrong, before her jaw dropped open.

"W...what? How? Cat?" Jade manages to stutter, before she leans against the sinks, and lets the confusion fall over her face. "I..don't understand."

"It's pretty standard," Cat giggles nervously.

"You're pregnant." Jade states, telling herself and Cat, unsure of what to do next. Cat looks shocked. She had convinced herself so thoroughly, so purely and wholly, that she now wholeheartedly believed that she had simply gained a few pounds.

"No," Cat says, simply smiling like an idiot and twirling her hair, "I've just let myself go. I need to run more."

Jade's already arched eyebrows shot up further, and they then furrowed in confusion. "You're not fat, Cat. Everywhere else there isn't an inch to pinch. You've been running already. That's why you look so goddamn awful all of the time. You're pregnant and anorexic, by the look of it. Are you taking your pills? How...How did you even get away with this this long? Do your parents know?"

Cat had not been subjected to this kind of interrogation for a long while, and when she closed her eyes she seemed to see question marks burned into her lids. She felt dizzy and sick and let herself throw up into the toilet. Standing afterwards, she wipes her mouth and spits some swilled water into the basin, turning on the faucet and letting the water run away the evidence.

"There is nothing to tell my parents," Cat says calmly, "And I eat just fine. Of course I'm taking my pills. Do I look crazy to you?"

If Jade were to be brutally honest, and if it was in any other situation, she might have said yes, because of the panda eyes Cat was sporting, even under so much makeup, the refusal and denial of her situation, and the skinniness of her already thin, small frame.

"No," Jade says, making her voice sound as firm as possible. "You are not crazy. However, you are in denial." She steers Cat to face the mirror. Cat takes a shaking hand and she reaches out to her reflection, to the oh so broken girl in the mirror staring back at her. Jade takes Cat by the shoulders. "Take a look, Cat. You look awful. Sorry."

"That's okay," Cat rasps, her voice wobbly with emotion. This is the first time someone has really taken the time to look past her bright magenta hair and fake smile and Jade has got to the raw surface.

"And your stomach? That isn't bloating, that isn't your time of the month, that isn't too much food. That is a baby, growing inside of you."

Cat's face crumples at the word. The word that she had been avoiding for so long. It made her cringe. "I don't want it, Jade. I don't want a baby. I never wanted this. I never wanted to hurt anyone." Cat whispers, remorse evident in her voice.

Jade keeps a lid on her emotion. "Why, why, why...didn't you tell me?"

"If I pretended, if I really pretended, didn't tell anyone, didn't think about it, didn't do anything...it wasn't happening."

"It was." Jade says, uncertain if Cat was aware of that fact or not. "It was always happening. Ignoring something doesn't make it go away, Cat."

"I know."

"So why did you do it?"

"Because it worked. I pretended it wasn't happening and it felt like it wasn't. You can laugh if you want."

Jade shakes her head. "No," she says, without a trace of a giggle, "I'm not going to laugh." She did however brace herself for the next question. "Who," Jade says simply. "Who?"

"Maybe you'll find out one day," Cat smiles sadly. "But for now the world isn't ready for that."

"I understand," Jade says, though she doesn't. "But just so you know...it doesn't matter, you know. Whose baby it is. As far as I'm concerned, he or she is yours. I'll help you all the way. First things first, you need to go to the doctor."

"Are you going to tell anyone?" Cat asks, suddenly frightened. She can't have anyone knowing. Jade considers for only a moment, and without consulting her brain, her heart takes over, shaking her head for her. Her mouth catches up eventually.

"No." Jade says. "I won't tell anyone."

"Can I have a hug?" Cat asks, so weak and pathetic that Jade's heart breaks all over again. "No one has hugged me in months..." she gestures to her swollen tummy. "Because, you know."

"I know," Jade says quietly, embracing Cat in a hug. She rests her head on Cat's like they always did. "I know."

It was in the moments like that that Cat felt like ending her own life through the guilt she felt. It was indescribable, overwhelming, and continuous. Jade would always be there for her, and Cat had betrayed her, she had acted on Jade's worst fears.

Cat didn't know what was worse. The fact that Jade was still her friend afterwards, even if she didn't know, or the fact that she was still with her cheating boyfriend, who didn't seem to feel any remorse, daring to look Cat in the eyes, nodding a "sup" every so often, too.

In those final months, Cat continued to feel awful. The doctors confirmed Cat's worst fears by smearing ultrasound gel over her stomach, and pressing the ultrasound probe down on her abdomen. Cat didn't like the feeling and she liked less the sound of the heartbeat. The steady thrum, thrum, thrum of the tiny baby's heart working hard just to keep beating made Cat feel lousy already, though she couldn't think why. Jade was there, holding Cat's hand all the way, smiling at the tiny black and white ultrasound photo that she stuck in a tiny album just in case Cat wanted it later on, when it had finally sunk in.

Her pregnancy progressed at a normal rate, and yet Cat continued to deceive those around her, preferring to keep to herself (and Jade) most of the time, and making sure no-one accidentally bumped into her stomach. So when, in the middle of method acting, while Jade was on stage having yet another argument with Tori, Cat began to feel twinges, she felt as if she could not make a scene. She simply waited until Jade had finished her scene, and then whispered in her ear, "Jadey?"

"Yes, Cat?" Jade replied, distracted by the sight of Tori and Beck on stage together.

"Jade, I think it's...y'know, time."

"Oh!" Jade yelped, making Cat giggle. And then she squealed.

"Ow! That hurt!"

"Okay, okay. We'll go. Just tell Sikowitz you feel unwell and I'll take you to the hospital," Jade whispered. Cat nods, and does as she is told to the letter. "Can you make it to my car?" Jade asked once they were out of the classroom, to which Cat responded with a nod, and a grimace. "Hurry, then!"

Cat and Jade made it to the hospital in just enough time to get Cat into a bed before she began to push. Again, Jade held her hand as she cried, and then she held a brand new baby as she cried, too.

Cat didn't seem to stop crying much in those hours afterwards, and neither did the baby. "It's okay, sweetheart," Cat would try and sniff, rocking the tiny baby that she had concealed for so long. "It's okay."

"It's okay," Jade repeats to Cat. Cat smiles sadly, and rests her head on Jade's arm. "It will be. Little baby here will be okay, and you will, too. What are you going to name her?"

"Anna Grace." Cat tries out, sounding uncertain. She then repeats the name, sounding much firmer. "Hello, little Anna Grace."

"Anna Grace." Jade says, nodding. She smiles down at Cat. "Anna Grace it is." Jade strokes the baby's soft cheek carefully and cradles her gently in her weighed down arms. She had no idea that babies could feel so heavy. It was a right heavy though, like her arms felt empty without the steady weight.

Cat suddenly begins to cry again shortly after, and Jade hugs her straight away, patting her back and shhing her. "What's the matter?" Jade asks gently, wiping Cat's tears away with a soft tissue. "Everything's okay."

"No, it's not! Anna Grace is such a beautiful name!" Cat exclaims, and Jade frowns.

"Yes, it is. For a beautiful baby. What's the problem?" Faint irritation crept its way into Jade's voice and Cat sniffed.

"I can't keep this baby," Cat whispers, holding the baby close and closing her eyes. Jade's heartbeat quickens.

"What? Why?"

"She deserves to be loved and looked after and I can't do that," Cat cries, her volume rising. The sound makes the baby cry harder. "A baby as beautiful as Anna Grace deserves a Mommy that can look after her, and she deserves a pretty house, and a Daddy."

"She has all of that. Or, at least, one day. She will have. But she has your love, and you love her so much. I can feel it."

"Okay," Cat says, feeling the tiniest ounce of confidence. "I'll try. I'm going to be the best Mommy ever, Anna Gracie. When you're tired, I'll sing you what I was sung to as a little girl. Shall I sing it now? No, you're asleep. You're already somewhere over the rainbow. But when you wake up, I promise I'll sing it."

Jade let her promise ring true - she stayed around, and she helped with the baby everyday afterschool. Telling Cat's parents was not a moment Jade would ever like to relive.

"God," Jade said afterwards, "They looked at me as if I was the one who knocked you up."

Cat giggled softly, "You're way better than he ever will be."

Winking, Jade smiles, "I know."

Cat had been thrown out on her ear and she didn't have much money. Luckily for her, Jade's father was. Even luckier, he didn't keep a very close eye on his finances as Jade wrote out a check forged with his signature at the bottom. The amount? Enough for a very small apartment. Cat called it cozy.

Jade called it cheap.

It didn't really matter. It was enough for Cat and Anna Grace, and Jade could sleep over on the couch when she wanted to, which suited them both fine. Cat dropped out of school and took care of the baby. She got checks from the state, but as soon as Anna was in nursery, she planned to get a job and a good one at that.

It turned out that Jade finished high school before that happened. When Anna Grace was four months old, Jade graduated from high school and told Cat that she would look after the baby while she job hunted. Jade was applying for college, so she had some time free. Every Wednesday night, Jade would look after Anna from 3-7.

Jade didn't mind. Anna Grace, though it seemed strange, seemed to have an old soul. She wouldn't cry, she would simply take in her surroundings happily kicking her little legs. Jade found something familiar in that little face of Anna's, and she would spend hours simply staring at the baby.

It just so happened that she was babysitting when her phone rang, that late Wednesday afternoon, the day when a perfect facade fell down. Jade tore her eyes from the baby to look at her cell, answering it immediately when she saw who was calling.

"Hey, babe." Jade said, smiling to herself and Anna Grace.

"Hey." Beck said from the other side of the phone. "What are you doing?"

"I'm watching Anna Grace," Jade rolled her eyes, "Like I do every Wednesday afternoon."

"Oh, right. Well, I'll leave you two alone, then." Beck laughed, easily and happily.

"You do that, we're happy enough," Jade joked, putting the phone down. Jade faced the baby once again, sighing happily. "That's Beck. You'll meet him soon enough, I expect. He'll be like an uncle, like I'm like an auntie. Would you like that, Anna? I'll show you a photo, huh? Yeah." Jade scrolls through her camera roll and selects a profile photo of Beck's. "This is him. Isn't he handsome? He's just the sweetest guy in the world. He's so lovely to your Mommy.."

Jade trails off, frowning slightly. "Your eyes are beautiful, sweetheart. The thing is, they're not like your Mom's. They're brown..but they're not like a doe eyed brown. They're more like..."

Jade's heart falls in her heavy chest and she feels as if she's being crushed. She thinks back all that time. Just over a year ago, when she and Beck were together. It all made sense.

That's why Cat had avoided her.

That's why Beck was weird for a while.

That's why Cat hid this.

That's why.

Jade's breaths came shallowly and often, as she tried to convince herself otherwise. How could they do that to her? At the moment where she was at her worst point, where her anger hadn't yet bubbled over, a little redhead walked into the apartment with a smile on her face.

"I got the job!"

And as if there was an off switch, all of Jade's anger disappeared. Her resentment, her hurt, her fear, rejection, denial and feelings of inadequacy remained, but the anger dissipated.

Instead of ripping the head off of the girl that stood in front of her, Jade put her arms around her, and sighed. "I'm so pleased," Jade says, her voice cracking at the end. "But I'm afraid I can't help you anymore. I hope you stay safe and happy and I'll always love you but I can't..not...I just..I know, okay? I know."

Jade leaves the apartment in a flurry of sweet perfume and it takes Cat a moment to process the information she has just received, and then she feels as if her heart as stopped. With shaking fingers, she punches in Beck's number. She hadn't yet told him about the baby explicitly, but Cat believes that Beck is smart enough to piece things together.

Beck picks up and before he even has a chance to say anything, Cat says the sentence that she thought she'd never have to say.

"She knows."

Not wanting a string of curse words in her ear, Cat quickly puts the phone down.

From here starts a spiral downwards. Without her best friend by her side, Cat's carefulness slips. Anna Grace is neglected from the start, and Cat finds one thing that numbs the pain is a very strong drink served with a bottomless glass. With no father in the picture and no support, Cat soon attracts the attention of the state who tell her that she should really buck up.

A woman in a fancy suit visits Cat and patronizes Cat to the highest degree. "Do you understand the seriousness of this, Miss Valentine? Clear this home up and give your daughter attention or you will not be a mother for much longer."

Cat's head snaps up. "Do you have children, Miss Snooty?"

"No, and I'll thank you not to-"

"Then you do not know that even if my baby is not with me, then I will always love her, and think about her, and care for her, and want what's best for her. I will always be a mother. Now leave! Leave my house!"

"This is your final warning, Miss Valentine. I will be back next week."

"Yeah, yeah," Cat mutters, slamming the door and then bitterly regretting it because of the hangover from hell she has. She knows she needs to really get sober and look after her baby but damn it, she should have given her up the moment she was born. She couldn't give her back now. It was too late. She'd already fallen in love with her.

Instead of scaring her into sobriety, the threat simply sent her further into her alcoholic depression.

It all went very quickly from there. The next week, when nothing had improved, it was deemed the best option to take the baby away from the mother, to ensure the safety of baby Anna Grace.

A lady in a very formal blazer and skirt came the next week with a letter in her hand stating that she needed to remove Anna Grace straight away. Cat plastered herself to the baby's door, screaming at the social worker.

"You can't do this! You can't take my baby! It's too late! I loved her first! She's mine!" Cat cries, getting on her knees to beg the lady to stop, to wait, to let her explain. "Please. Please don't take my baby," Cat begs, tears flowing down her face in bucket loads. "I love her. I love my baby. You should have taken her when she was born! It's too late now, it's too late. I've fallen in love with her..."

"Kiss her goodbye, Miss Valentine,"

Cat tenderly plants a kiss on Anna Grace's forehead, and tries one last time. "Please, Miss...don't take away the only thing in my life that's keeping me alive. Please, please, don't,"

"I have to," and with that, she left. She left Cat screaming to herself, rocking in a ball on the floor, curled up in the fetal position and crying so much she vomited, which made Cat reach for the bottle of vodka sitting on the side. In doing so, she knocks over a bottle of aspirin also sitting on the side. Dozens of white pills spill over onto the cold wooden floor, and Cat scoops up handfuls. Looking at the handful of pills in one hand, and the almost full bottle of vodka in the other, Cat seizes her opportunity to see happiness again. She takes a mouthful of pills with a mouthful of vodka and continues this until there are no pills left, in which case the vodka goes down her burning throat alone.

Cat begins to feel woozy, but then, she's used to that. Before she lets the world go completely, she grabs a pen and writes a very short note.

AG + J

Most important to me.

Always I will love and miss you both.

I'll watch from wherever I am.

Be happy.

Love Cat/Mommy

A wave of dizziness hits her once again and Cat hits the floor with a thud. The world spins around her and she giggles before closing her eyes for the last time.

It's okay, Cat thinks. I'm going to be happy at last...somewhere over the rainbow, she hopes.

RIP Cat Valentine.

Somewhere over the rainbow, blue birds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow, why then, oh why can't I?
If happy little blue birds fly beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can't I?

A/N:

This was only supposed to be like 1000 words! Haha, I hope you guys liked it all the same. :)