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Vi didn’t sleep for a long time after The Battle. She ached from head to toe, broken shoulder throbbing, longing for the reprieve of a dreamless sleep.
But every time she closed her eyes, she saw the worst moments all over again. Jinx falling. Loris’s corpse laid out with the other bodies. Ambessa’s knife in Caitlyn’s eye. Vi hadn’t even been there for that one, but she imagined it too clearly.
Instead of sleeping, she watched over Caitlyn.
By the time she and Ekko had found Caitlyn after The Battle, she was unconscious. Her shirt had been cut to her midriff, bandages taped over her stomach wound. Another bandage covered her left eye. She had been so still that, for a terrifying, disorienting moment, Vi had thought her dead. It had been Tobias who told her Caitlyn was only asleep, that she needed the rest to heal faster.
But the longer Caitlyn didn’t wake, the more Vi worried.
Twenty-four sleepless hours after The Battle had ended, and Caitlyn was still out. Vi sat tense and cold against the headboard of Caitlyn’s bed, wondering if this was how Caitlyn had felt when their positions were reversed, after the commune, when Caitlyn had been the one tending to her.
Vi had, hours ago, cleaned the blood and grit from Caitlyn’s skin and hair, changing her out of battle gear and into a thick robe. Still, Caitlyn hadn’t so much as twitched. Vi clung desperately to the proof of life in Caitlyn’s warm hand and the shallow rise and fall of her chest.
Tobias visited often to check on Caitlyn. He usually avoided Vi’s eyes as he treated his daughter’s wounds with practiced ease. She couldn’t find it in her to care.
This time, though, Tobias spoke to her. He sighed where he was bent over Caitlyn, checking her injured eye. “You should rest.”
“Can’t.”
Tobias had finished his work in silence.
Some time later, when the bags under Vi’s eyes had grown deeper and her vision blurry, Tobias came in again.
He sat in the chair on the other side of Caitlyn’s bed, looking as exhausted as Vi felt. He had seemingly aged years since Vi met him, marked by an increase in gray hairs and wrinkles, and the way he moved like his body weighed more than he could carry.
Though Caitlyn had tried to get him to leave Piltover before The Battle, he’d stayed to help in a triage center with the other doctors who hadn’t fled. He’d been tending to the wounded ever since The Battle ended.
“Go try to sleep. I’ll stay with her.”
Vi was terrified that if she left now, it would be the last time she saw Caitlyn alive. But Caitlyn would have wanted her to rest, and Tobias would watch over her in Vi’s absence. He was decidedly more useful if an emergency did arise.
“You’ll get me if she wakes up?”
He nodded, gaze focussed on his daughter.
Vi squeezed Caitlyn’s hand in a silent plea before letting go and leaving for one of the guest rooms.
When Vi slept, it was in short bursts plagued by nightmares. She kicked in her sleep, rolling right off the bed once, and woke up screaming, face wet with tears. Each time, she rushed to Caitlyn’s bedside to check she was still breathing. She’d sit with her a while before leaving to try to sleep again.
During the day, she stayed with Caitlyn, too concussed to want to do anything else even if she wanted to.
Often, Tobias sat in his chair, sometimes sleeping or reading. Sometimes he left to tend to his other patients, but the more time passed, the less they seemed to need him.
On the third evening of Caitlyn’s coma — what else could it be called now? — panic clawed at Vi’s chest, quickening her breath and dotting her forehead with sweat. Surely, Caitlyn had been unconscious for too long now. Something had to be wrong.
Vi couldn’t lose her. Not again. Not now. Caitlyn was all she had — Caitlyn, and Ekko. She would catch up with him once Caitlyn was awake.
Tobias stepped into the room and checked the IV attached to Caitlyn’s arm. That done, he held out a vial of clear liquid to Vi. “Drink this.”
She squinted at the glass, holding it to the light. “Trying to poison me, doc?”
“It will let you sleep. Peacefully.”
Vi swallowed, throat suddenly tight. She knew why Tobias didn’t like her, understood it better than he knew, but here he was. Helping her. “Thank you.”
“You love my daughter.”
She nodded, though she hadn’t said those words to Caitlyn yet. She had wanted to, had tasted them on the tip of her tongue before The Battle, but it had seemed too much like a goodbye. She didn’t want Caitlyn thinking she was only saying it out of fear.
So she had pressed her forehead to Caitlyn’s and begged her to be careful. It didn’t feel like enough then, and it didn’t feel like enough now.
“Is she okay? When will she wake up?”
“Sleep is the best thing she can do right now,” Tobias answered. “The more rest she gets, the quicker she’ll heal.”
But what if she doesn’t wake up?
Tobias slumped into his seat, levelling Vi with a tired look. “That goes for you too.”
Vi’s broken shoulder ached in agreement. It was the worst of her injuries — thanks to Jinx. She was only alive because of Jinx. But thinking about her hurt like being carved open, so she tried to focus on Caitlyn. “I’ll try.”
Pausing by the door, Tobias added, “And Vi? Please, stay as long as you like. Caitlyn will need you when she wakes.”
When she wakes.
“I won’t go anywhere unless she asks me to leave.”
A threat and a promise all rolled up in one, but Tobias just nodded and left.
Vi scooched down the bed to curl on her side, staring at Caitlyn’s peaceful face. Even though they were on the same bed, Vi missed her as much as when they’d been in different parts of the city.
She pressed a kiss to Caitlyn’s cheek. “Please wake up soon.”
When she didn’t immediately open her eyes, Vi opened the bottle Tobias had given her and swallowed its contents.
For the first time in days, she slept without dreaming.
When she woke, groggy and almost peaceful, Caitlyn was still asleep. Vi had cried then, loud, gasping sobs. She hadn’t cried since before The Battle, too numb, too afraid for Caitlyn, but now she couldn’t seem to stop.
She cried until she had no more tears left, her head pounding, her eyes bloodshot. Then, she got up, used the bathroom, and returned to Caitlyn’s side.
Tobias returned when Vi’s eyes were still red and puffy, but at least she was no longer openly crying.
He checked Caitlyn’s wounds and IV before sinking into his chair. “How did you sleep?”
Vi cleared her dry throat. “Good. Thanks. The medicine helped.”
They didn’t say anything more, but something in the air had changed. Some tension dissipated.
Maybe he hated her a little less now.
It was night when Caitlyn finally woke. The curtains had been pulled shut, the only light from a lamp on her bedside table.
Her hand twitched in Vi’s, tightening around her fingers. Then, slowly, her eyelid fluttered open.
Vi exhaled every ounce of stress she’d built up since The Battle. She clutched at Caitlyn’s hand and gave her a watery smile. “Morning, Cait.”
Though Caitlyn looked hardly cognizant, her gaze fixed on Vi. One bright blue eye, full of desperation and adoration. When she spoke, her voice was hoarse, but relieved, “ Vi.”