Mountain Magic Revisted

"Bitch", Kate snarled as she continued walking towards Cat. Her normally well-kept hair was disheveled, and her clothing was wrinkled and stained. This was really out of character for the perfectly put-together woman that Cat thought Kate to be. Kate cared too much about appearances to meet her rival in such a state of messiness. Something's off, Cat thought.

Kate seemed to be lurching up the road, her face a mask of unearthly hatred. Way too much hatred. Quickly, Cat "sampled" the emotion in the air. Uh-oh.

Cat could see, could tell, could feel that Kate had snapped. This woman had gone off the deep end and completely lost her sanity. The blackness roiling out of Kate's aura was terrifying.

Cat paused. What to do? Turn and run back to the house? Uh-huh. No way – that was the coward's way out. Cat was no coward. Besides, Cat really didn't want to turn her back on this crazy bitch.

Stand and face her. That seemed to be the best choice at the moment, though Cat slipped her hand in her pocket and palmed her cell phone. If anything got too out of hand, Cat could call Jesse.

"Kate, what do you want?" Cat asked carefully. She didn't want to antagonize the woman if she really HAD gone nutso.

"I want Jesse, you whore" Kate snapped. "I want my LIFE back! Jesse was mine! She was mine! We had a beautiful relationship together until you showed up and snatched her away from me!!" Spittle flew from her messy red lips as she hurled curses at Cat.

Delusional. Kate was delusional. Cat flinched from the unadulterated rage in Kate's voice. Cat knew she had done nothing to deserve such anger from this woman. It should be Cat that was yelling at Kate. Cat took a deep breath, treading carefully around this particular pit of vipers.

"Kate...please calm down. I did no such thing. You and Jesse hadn't been together for months." Cat explained. Absurdly, Cat thought of the night she and Jesse met, when Jesse had used her soothing husky voice to calm Cat's nerves and keep Cat from shooting her. Cat wished she had that voice now.

"Liar!" Kate yelled. "We were trying to work it out! I would still be with her if you hadn't STOLEN her from me! And I would be the famous artist with the great shows and all the money if you hadn't spoilt everything!! YOU RUINED MY LIFE!" The light in Kate's eyes was unholy, and suddenly Cat was very very scared. Something inside Kate had snapped, and the woman was dangerously close to the edge. Obviously, Kate was blaming Cat for all the wrong in life. Cat knew there would be no talking to her, no calming her down. In fact, Cat was suddenly in fear for her life.

This woman had burned down a building for god's sake. Cat wasn't even sure if Kate was aware of whether or not there were people in the building when she set the fire. Could Kate be capable of murder? Cat's instinct told her yes.

Cat pulled her phone out of her pocket, and hit the first speed dial button. She backed away from Kate, wishing Jesse would pick up quick.

"Where do you think you're going?" Kate snarled. "I am not through with you yet! You have to pay for what you did! This is all your fault you fucking cunt!"

Cat turned and ran, fleeing the dark rage that Kate directed at her. Where were the cops? Weren't the cops looking for this crazy woman? Vaguely, Cat heard Jesse's voice coming from the cell phone she still held in her hand.

"Jesse?? Jesse, help me! Kate's out here...I think she's snapped!" Cat yelled into the phone, not sure if Jesse could hear her or not.

As Cat ran up the middle of the street, she saw random passersby looking at her oddly. Cat couldn't care less. Her instinct told her she was in danger. Cat ran for all she worth.

Up ahead, Cat saw Jesse coming out of the apartment building, frantically scanning the street. Seeing Cat, Jesse ran down the last few steps towards her. Cat slowed down some, sure that Jesse would help, would protect her, and this whole messy scene would soon be over.

Suddenly, Jesse screamed. "CAT! Look out!!" Cat heard a man's voice off to one side holler as well "HEY! Watch it lady!".

Cat stopped to look behind her, turning in time to see the twisted gnarled look on Kate's face as the blonde woman ran her silver Honda into Cat's body. Cat heard Jesse's scream of terror as her body flew through the air, her vision wheeling to the sky, the ground, the sky. She heard Jesse crying her name as she felt her body slam into the hard unforgiving asphalt. Then Cat heard no more.

There was nothing, nothing but blackness. Cat's consciousness grappled with the unending unmarked darkness, trying but finding nothing to hold onto. Her mind whirled through the empty nothingness. The blackness went on forever, an eon of floating/spinning/swimming through not a thing. After a lifetime, Cat vaguely sensed something besides utter dark. She latched on to it, thankful for anything tangible in the perfect nothing.

It was pain. Buzzing, smothering pain. Everywhere, in everything. It burned, it tortured, it killed. It eclipsed even the unending blackness. Cat tried to twitch, tried to escape the flames of hurt, but her body didn't respond to her commands. She was helplessly tumbling through nothingness, and oh god how it hurt. It hurt so much. It hurt and it wouldn't stop.

Why didn't someone stop the pain? Why was she in so much pain? Please God....stop the pain...

Slowly, Cat became aware of something else, something just beyond the pain, beyond the blackness. She floated/spun/swam towards it, anything to get away from the hurt. It seemed to beckon to her, calling her ever closer. It promised an end to the blackness, an end to the unbearable pain. It offered comfort, peace, love...it was Eternal. Cat struggled to meet it, but every time she came closer the Unnamable, comfort moved ever further. Slowly, so slowly Cat made her way in increments closer to the dot of light that beckoned to her. Every millimeter closer she got was a millimeter more the pain faded.

Cat was frustrated, trying to twitch her body in annoyance. Was use was Eternal ever-after if you couldn't GET to it? What the hell had happened anways? Cat tried to focus her mind on why she was here, wherever it was...

Slowly, like listening with your head underwater, Cat became aware of voices. Voices over her, or maybe under her. Several different voices, fading in and out in a confusing whirl of sound. Direction was confusing in this nothingness.

....911. They'll be here soon...license plate of that car...what the hell....CAT!?....god please CAT....she's not breathing...CPR?? CAT!!!....was that crazy lady anyways?...don't move her...please Cat don't leave me, oh god Cat, don't go....don't go, stay here, dontgobabyiloveyoucomebackstaygethelphelpCAT!....

Cat wondered if she should answer that distressed voice crying her name. It seemed important somehow. But light of Eternity still beckoned, and Cat knew if she turned/floated/swam back to that husky voice that the pain would return full force. One ignored the light of Eternity at one's own peril. But that voice. Cat paused in her struggle for the Eternal, hesitant about what to do. The voice was familiar, as familiar as her own, and it needed answering so badly. Cat couldn't let that voice cry and scream; she had to respond.

Jesse. The name seemed to float past Cat, or maybe Cat floated past the name...suddenly the voice had a name. Jesse. Jesse love. Love Jesse...red hair and laughing green eyes and the warmest heart, soft hands and a quick tongue. Jesse...everything.

As if naming the voice was tantamount to making a choice, the light of Eternity faded away, leaving Cat once again tumbling through absolute nothing but never ending pain. Cat struggled, frustrated with the loss of whatever progress she had made, flailing violently with all her might to find anything at all, anything besides pain. But WHAT?

The voice...find the voice...

"Cat...god please Cat...stay with me baby...stay with me." Wracked sobbing screams and cries for help. Why was it raining? Cat became aware of externals, knowing that the pain she was feeling was coming from her body. Her broken body. Cat reeled away from that body, not wanting to feel the awful pain associated with it. But that was the only way to hear Jesse. The voice...the voice was all that was important. Pain would pass, could be gotten used to...but the voice was everything.

Cat focused with all her strength on Jesse's voice, aching to hold the woman and tell her that she wasn't going anywhere, but would she PLEASE stop the pain? But Cat still couldn't move. A heavy blanket lay over her entire body, holding her down with a stone weight. But Cat's mind wasn't held down. Cat tried to send her thoughts to Jesse, comforting her. I'm here Jesse, don't cry my love. I'm here....

Time passed. It could have been a second; it could have been a lifetime...

"...like I said, that was a lifetime ago...ah, baby you taste so good...show me how beautiful two women can be..."

Cat snapped to?reality? in a panic. Had she floated away again? Had she lost the voice, left Jesse behind by accident? No...no...there was the voice.

It's funny...Cat was sure she was dead. She waited for her life to flash before her eyes...after a moment/second/century it did...

Mountain Magic...ah, the cabin. Images flashed through Cat's consciousness...images of the snow covered roads, the rustic log cabin where she and Jesse had met. Cat holding a gun on her. Watching her ass in the firelight. Seeing the snow blanketing everything for miles. Watching Cat in the shower, turned on and wanting her so bad. Looking at Cat in the moonlight streaming in the windows, a goddess or temptress created just for her. Excited and falling in love so fast it was scary, but wanting Cat so bad she trembled with it.

Confused, Cat watched the images flow by. These were not her memories. This isn't how she remembered it. Cat had held the gun on Jesse...yet Cat was seeing it the other way around; from Jesse's perspective. And why would Cat's movie reel show her in the shower? Cat would not see herself in the shower....had Jesse seen Cat in the shower? Shouldn't Cat be seeing Jesse, and not the other way around? Were these Jesse's memories?

Cat tried to laugh, of course not being successful. She laughed to herself instead, amused at the cosmic twist that gave her Jesse's life at the end of her own.

The images of that wonderful beautiful week together continued to flow through Cat's mind, one after the other. Except Cat was viewing them from Jesse's side. It was interesting, and added a whole new depth to the most profound time in her life.

This was important as well, wasn't it? Why would she be seeing Jesse's life? Was Jesse dead too? Did Kate run her over as well? Perhaps we're soul mates, Cat thought. Our lives entwined so deeply that her life is my life...Were they to share eternity? Perhaps that was why, and even now Jesse was seeing Cat's memories. It was too confusing...too hard to focus, find out why. There was no why...it just was...and it was hard. It hurt...Cat finally had nothing left, no strength. She felt her mind, her last bit of consciousness collapsing in on itself, swirling down like a whirlpool in an emptying bathtub...she had to let go. I'm so sorry Jesse...it's too hard.

Cat's consciousness faded out again to the nothing, but as her mind faded to black there was one single last image of Jesse in the mountains, tromping through the snow, a joyful light in her soft green eyes as the redhead looked at her beloved mountains.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Beeping. Slow and steady beeps intruded into Cat's unconsciousness.

Beep.....beep....beep. Was Heaven supposed to be beeping?? Beep...beep...beep....beep. It was really annoying. Heaven wasn't supposed to be annoying her was it?? Where were the choruses of angels? There was supposed to be hallelujahs and hoseas, not beeping!

Slowly, Cat tried to open her eyes. They responded, but slammed shut again at the stabbing pain of the light of the outside world.

Her hand twitched, finding a resistance she hadn't expected. She closed her fingers, glad to find her body responding to her commands as they hadn't before. Her hand gently gripped another hand.

"Cat? Cat??" Jesse said.

Cat groaned.

"Oh thank god hallelujah. Cat!! Doctor!! Nurse! Somebody! CAT!!!"

Cat twitched, as the shouting was very grating on her eardrums, worse than the beeping had been. The twitching set off a barrage of pain, and Cat groaned again.

I'm going to have to open my eyes and tell them how much I hurt, Cat thought. But it's so damn bright.

"....iiiitttes..." Cat groaned.

"What's that baby? Try again Cat.." Jesse's voice was urgent, pleading, her hand crushing the bones in Cat's hand. "DOCTOR!!!! SHE'S AWAKE!!"

Cat twitched again away from the sound, and gasped with the pain. She tried harder. "...light ...too...bright..."

Cat heard a click, and then "OK, baby, I turned the lights off."

Cat tried again to open her eyes, succeeding in getting a slit wide enough to see through. She slowly focused, seeing Jesse's worried emerald eyes over her. A gorgeous smile of relief lit the redhead's face as tears fell from her red-rimmed green eyes.

"Oh baby, thank god you're awake...I've been so scared..." Jesse bowed her head over their clasped hands, sobs shaking her strong shoulders. Cat tried to comfort Jesse, but was unable to do much more than squeeze her hand.

In a moment, the doctor arrived with a nurse and several tests were done before they would answer any questions. For hours, Cat was poked and prodded, scanned and micro-scanned, wheeled from room to room as the doctors tried to make sure of her brain's ability to function. Finally Cat found out exactly had happened.

Kate had hit her at a pretty good clip. Cat had flown roughly 40 feet before landing. The impact with the car, and then with the ground had broken her right hip, both legs, snapped all three major bones in her left arm, cracked several ribs, shattered her clavicle and fractured her skull. She had most likely died at some point before the ambulance arrived, but her vitals were weak yet present when she arrived at the ICU. Her brain swelling from the head trauma had been scary for a while, but the doctors had gotten it under control and they didn't see any more cause for concern.

She'd been in a coma for 4 days. Jesse hadn't left her side.

Kate had been found, with empty jugs of kerosene still in the trunk of the car she had rammed into Cat. Forensics confirmed Kate as the arsonist, and also found traces of Cat's blood on the bumper of the Honda. Even if there hadn't been witnesses, there was enough evidence to put Kate away for a very long time. She had been arrested and charged with arson and attempted vehicular manslaughter. There had been several witnesses to her crazed manic attempt to end Cat's life. She was being held without bail in jail, awaiting trial.

Cat got supreme pleasure out of watching the arrest and subsequent parade of the accused on the evening news as police officers dragged Kate out of her cousin's house in handcuffs. The arson, plus the assault on Cat's famous self had turned this into national news.

The hospital would keep her another night or so, but barring any more problems, she could go home. Jesse would stay home and help Cat, as the numerous casts made getting around very difficult. But there was no brain swelling, no obvious brain damage, and the doctor predicted a full recovery. Cat knew she was lucky...and she knew she had died during those moments in the street.

Their last night in the hospital, she and Jesse talked quietly about it.

"Jesse...I died. I'm positive. I was dead" Cat said softly.

"Cat, telling me you died is doing nothing for my blood pressure", Jesse said with a soft smile.

Cat smiled back. "I guess not. But I did...I saw the light and everything. And I wanted to go. It hurt so much to stay. But I couldn't leave..."

"Why not?" Jesse asked

"You." Cat said simply. "You called me back. It was your voice that I clung to, that kept me tethered here. I couldn't leave it behind". Tears filled Cat's blue eyes as she remembered the awful helplessness of listening to Jesse's torment. "I couldn't leave you to cry over my body."

Tears once again fell down Jesse's face. "Baby, I'm so glad you stayed here with me...I don't know how long I would have lasted without you."

"Which reminds me...?" Cat began with a questioning look in her eyes. "At one point, I thought my life was flashing before my eyes, you know like they say it does?" Jesse nodded. "Well...it wasn't my life. It was yours!"

"What?" Jesse asked with a snort. "My life? Seriously?"

"Well, not your whole life...just the days we met up at Mountain Magic. They were your memories, not mine...the scenes were all from your point of view."

"Cat, that's just...unbelievable!" Jesse scoffed.

"Well, that's what I saw. Oh, and just when did you watch me in the shower??" Cat asked accusingly.

Jesse gaped at her. "That first morning. By accident really. But I never told you, never mentioned it until..." Jesse trailed off with a confused look on her face.

"Until...", Cat prodded.

"Well, while you were in the coma, the nurses kept telling me to talk to you, that you might hear me. All I could think to talk about was how we met, and how much you affected me, and how wonderful the whole week was. I talked about Mountain Magic nonstop for almost an entire day. That's the only time I ever spoke about the shower thing..." Jesse looked at Cat with disbelief. "Did you hear me??"

"I guess somehow I did...what I thought was my life was actually your memories, implanted by your talking. Hmmm...interesting", Cat mused. "One thing is for sure though" she continued.

Jesse lifted an eyebrow in question. "What's that?"

"You MUST be my soul-mate!!" Cat said

"How do you figure? I mean...yeah, I think we are too. But why are you so sure now?" Jesse asked, puzzled.

"I can't think of another reason I would stop my soul from drifting away that day. I gave up Heaven and Eternity for more life with you, my love", Cat explained.

Jesse looked at Cat with love, wonder, gratitude, and laughter all mixed in her emerald eyes. "And I would give it all up for you as well" she replied. "You are the best thing that has ever happened to me, Cat. My universe has completely shifted – the sun rises in your eyes now, not the East. And the center of my world is you; not the Sun. I bless the day I met you, and if my reliving those days kept you here with me, I double bless them!"

Cat giggled, "Mountain Magic brought us together once again!" Jesse laughed, and pulled the beautiful brunette into a gentle, easy embrace. Cat was so thankful, that those mountains had brought this wonderful woman into her life, and even more grateful that she had been given a second chance with her soul mate.

"There's just one final question I have", Cat said seriously, pulling back to look deeply into Jesse's happy face.

"What's that?" Jesse asked, sobering quickly.

"How long do you think it will be until we can make love again?"

The two women's laughter rang up and down the hallways of the ICU, a bright spot of hope and love in what had been a sad and dreary place. Just as Jesse's heart had walked in shadow, and Cat's spirit had been covered in doubt – now together there was nothing but wonder, and joy, and peace shining through their eyes. And like a sunset blaze on a snow white mountain top, the light was blinding.