We Took the Fall

29: We Knew What We Were Getting Into

“How are you feeling this morning?” Fernando mused as he watched Catalina pad into his kitchen, her body clad in a shirt of his that hung off of her smaller frame. It had been a tough day, after the visit to the hospital, Catalina had been quiet and withdrawn, and it worried the striker. Clearly some of the things that Alicia had spouted at her had gotten into her head and he didn’t quite know how to get them out again. Clearly, just telling her that they were wrong wasn’t going to work.

“I am fine” Catalina replied softly as she moved to prepare herself a light breakfast “But I’ll need you to drive me back to my place. I need to get changed before I go to work” she explained gently.

Fernando shook his head. “You’re not going to work” he mumbled “Esther cleared it with the head teacher yesterday. You’re not going back today” he explained gently. It was a little silly, physically, other than the scratches, Catalina was perfectly fine, but Fernando worried about her emotional state. She was tearful, quiet and a little jumpy and he wasn’t comfortable sending her to work when she was still so upset. He knew it wouldn’t do her any good.

“Why?” Catalina posed gently.

“Because you’re not Ok” Fernando replied, his brown eyes watching her over the rim of the coffee cup he held “And because the last place you need to break down in tears is in front of a group of children. Lina, you’re not yourself and until I am sure that you can handle it, Esther is going to cover for you” he explained softly.

“I am fine, Fernando” Catalina sighed gently.

“I don’t believe you” he replied gently.

Catalina rolled her eyes. “I am a big girl, Nando, I think I can handle myself” she muttered as she turned back to the food she was preparing.

Fernando sighed and placed his cup down, padding towards her. “I never said that you couldn’t, Lina” he murmured, placing his arms around her waist “I just think, for today at least, you’d be better served by staying here and relaxing a little. You’ve not been yourself since it happened Lina and I just don’t think that a classroom full of children is going to help you right now. I know you can handle yourself, I know that you can muddle through, but just for today, for my piece of mind, please stay here” he whispered gently.

Catalina chewed her lip. “What am I supposed to do here all day?” she whispered.

“Anything you want to” Fernando replied “I will only be gone for a couple of hours, 3 tops, and then we can have a lazy day or something. I just don’t want you to make things worse for yourself, nena” he murmured as he traced the line between her shoulder and her jaw with his nose, pressing feather-like kisses in spots against her skin.

Catalina closed her eyes. “You really think this is the way to deal with this?” she posed, leaning into him.

“Right now, yes” he replied simply.

Catalina sighed. “Alright then” she murmured.

Fernando, who had set about leaving a little mark beneath the collar of the shirt she wore, smiled a little, knowing that she had probably made the right call.

~#~
Flicking through the channels on the television, Catalina sighed, bored already. It had only been a few hours, Fernando had departed to training and insisted that he would bring them back something to eat, but Catalina regretted allowing him to talk her into it. She knew that he had a point, she hadn’t been herself since she had seen Alicia the day before, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t keep herself in check. It wasn’t like it was the first time that Alicia had gotten to her.

Stopping the television on some re-run of a sitcom, Catalina pushed herself to her feet, padding into the bathroom. She hadn’t looked at it, the series of scratches that her sister had left on her skin, but with little else to do, she opted to check on it. She needed to change the plaster anyways. Peeling the white adhesive plaster off of her cheek, she let out a little whimper as it pulled at her skin before she placed it into the bin, her blue eyes staring at the four reddish pink marks that stuck out of her pale complexion. They weren’t terrible, not like they could have been if Alicia had managed to corner her on her own, but they were still obvious, something which made Catalina flinch. She could only imagine what could have happened if Fernando and Esther hadn’t been there.

“Lina?”

Catalina jumped a little and turned, watching as Fernando padded through the bathroom door.

“What are you doing?” he posed gently.

“I had to change the plaster over” Catalina replied “And I wanted to look at them. It’s hard to believe that she did this to me” she murmured, her fingers lightly brushing over the marks.

Fernando sighed and took a pace towards her, moving to place a small amount of the antiseptic cream onto his fingers. “I am sorry for this, Lina” he murmured, rubbing the cream into her skin which caused her to flinch gently.

“For what?” Catalina replied.

“For all of this” Fernando replied “I should have kept my distance” he added.

“Fernando…”

“It is my fault” Fernando interjected, shaking his head lightly “I hurt your sister, I antagonized your family and now I am the reason you got hurt, even if it isn’t serious. I should have done a better job of looking out for you or I should have just stayed away from you, either way, I should have looked after you better” he explained, his voice low.

Catalina shook her head gently. “It’s not your fault” she whispered.

“Catalina, it is” Fernando replied, moving to take another plaster out of the bag they’d been given, gently covering the scratches up once more.

Catalina shook her head. “I don’t want to you feeling bad about this” she muttered, placing her arms around his neck.

“It’s a bit late for that” he mumbled, hiding his face in the side of her neck.

“Alicia is the one who did this” Catalina mumbled gently “She’s the one with the problem, not you. This isn’t going to be the last thing that she does to try and get at us and if this is how you react, she’s going to have her way sooner rather than later” she mused.

“But…”

“Fernando, we both knew what we were getting into” she mused, offering him a little smile “We made a choice to be together and we need to stick by it, OK, no matter what happens” she explained gently.

Fernando sighed. “What if it gets worse?” he posed lightly.

“We take it a day at a time” Catalina replied, gently kiss the side of his head.

Fernando sighed and hugged her close. “I love you” he murmured.

Catalina blinked a little before a small smile grew on her face. Tilting his head back a fraction, she peeked into his eyes and smiled. “I love you too” she whispered before she placed a kiss on his lips. Fernando smiled and held her close, hoping that they would be OK.
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