After The Void

Notes:

Way back into Catnny, this fic was possible thanks to the love and encouragement of my girlfriend Letícia ❤ TE AMO amor!

To my friend Amanda, kid, there's a little gift to you in this, hope you like it!

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When we were born, nobody gave us a lesson on how to breathe—we just did. The same thing happens with love. Nobody tells you how to love—we just do.

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Fanny had always hated hospitals.

She hated everything about them - the sterility, the scent of disinfectant filling her nose, despair and desperation almost tangible in the air. It was a reminder of humanity's fragility, how breakable we were, how helpless.

In the Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital, Fanny's senses were flooded with the beeping of machines, the sound of hushed voices and someone sobbing nearby filling her ears. It took her only a second for her to locate the room she wanted, tilting down her glasses Fanny took several shaky steps towards the door at the end of the hall.

The door was cracked open, a middle-aged woman with long shiny hair sitting beside the bed, leaning over a table. Books, that appear to be novels were spread across it, a frown of concentration on her face as she changed every page, studying the situation in-front of her as Fanny watched her.

She hadn't seen Chiara for years. She'd been around her 40s the last time she'd laid eyes on her, a few inches shorter than her with a cheeky smile and eyes that sometimes came close to the shade of green as her mother. Now, at 47, she could tell she had become a beautiful lady, as beautiful as Catherine.

Fanny rapped her knuckles on the door, not wanting to startle her, but Chiara jumped anyway, her eyes widening as she realised who was standing there.

"Fanny?" - She looked confused to see her, and Fanny supposed that she couldn't really blame her. - "What are you doing here?"

"I only just heard." - Fanny's eyes fell to the other occupant of the room, lying in the hospital bed, eyes closed and she'd look peaceful, if not for the wires snaking their way from beneath her gown, hooked up to various items of machinery. - "I would've come sooner, if I knew."

"I'm sure she didn't want anyone to know." - Chiara said, her voice quiet. - "You know how she is."

"Yeah, I do." - There was another chair in the room, and Fanny settled into it. - "What happened?"

"Stroke."

Fanny thought of the prescription for blood pressure medication that she'd had seen Catherine take, thought of people in the business joking that she was one cigarette away from a coronary, and clenched her jaw tight.

"She just ... collapsed."

"You were with her?" - Fanny asked, aghast that she'd had to go through that.

"No, she was shooting a movie. They said that if she hadn't been in an actual hospital she definitely wouldn't have made it, so." - Chiara shrugged, her voice small, eyes haunted, and Fanny's heart ached for her. - "That was a week ago, and she's been here ever since. They don't know when she'll wake up. If she'll wake up."

"If I know anything about your mother", - Fanny said, her voice fierce as she held Chiara's gaze, - "it's that she'll do whatever it takes to get back to you. She's the strongest woman I know."