CATALINA, paul lahote

EYE CONTACT.

[ alternatively : how to tell if a guy likes you ]

CATALINA SWAN COULD HEAR BEEPING. AND IT WAS REALLY FUCKING ANNOYING. It was almost constant, and for a second she thought it was her alarm before remembering her alarm didn't sound like that. Her eyes felt like they weighed a million tons, and she already knew the light was too bright before she even opened her eyes, squeezing shut tightly as she roused herself.

Where was she?

She knew she wasn't in her bedroom, the light was much too bright for the little lamp that rested on her bedside table. And her mattress was a lot comfier than this. Her back arched slightly against the bed, her bones cracking one by one and she felt like she hadn't moved in days. "Cat?" A voice echoed around the room, around her head and caused her to scrunch her nose in distaste.

She felt heavy.

"Cata, baby. You awake?"

Charlie Swan watched as his eldest daughter's lashes fluttered open, her eyes dilating to accommodate the light as she squinted around the room. And he felt his heart break. She looked tired, the bags under her eyes almost as purple as the bruises across her skin - and it didn't help with all the wires poking out of her skin.

Charlie Swan never wanted to see his daughter like this ever again.

"Dad-?" She croaked out, her voice coming out thick and hoarse as she fluttered her lashes to try and clear her eyesight, everything blurry with sleep.

"Hey, golden girl." As she tried to push her way upward, her body screaming at her to stop as she did, her fathers hand pushed gently against her shoulder. "No, Cata. Cata, you shouldn't." He warned her kindly, the crease between his brow softening as she fell back down.

"Bella." Cata asked quickly when he wouldn't let her up. "Bella? Is she okay?"

"She's fine, your mum's with her." Charlie nodded soothingly, his hand reaching to push hair from her face as relief flooded her body. "She's in the room next door."

"You called mum?" She tried to joke, wincing as she shifted against the paper thin mattress. 

"It was life or death." Charlie nodded with a small smile, grateful Catalina seemed almost normal even as she lay against the bed, her body propped up by pillows.

"You feeling okay?"

"What happened?" Cata asked after a second of silence, almost too scared to ask whatever concoction of a story the Cullen's had made up.