Jackie woke up in a haze. The darkness of her room was playing tricks with her mind. The way it does when you've slept for so long and you don't know whether it's morning or night. The last thing she remembered was collapsing on her bed after returning from Wade's office.
She reached over and felt for her phone on the nightstand. It was 1am. She had literally slept all day. Panicking, she checked her phone and saw a missed call and messages from Catherine. Thankfully, she had assumed correctly, that Jackie had fallen asleep. She wrote her a text apologising and asking her to call when she wakes up. Slowly getting out of bed, she walked across the room and turned on the light. The sudden brightness was too harsh on her eyes, causing her to squint until they were adjusted.
When she could finally see clearly, she noticed the emptiness in her room now that all of Catherine's things were no longer there. It was finally starting to sink in that she was really gone. Yearning to talk to her even more, Jackie made her way into the living room to start memorising the script she had picked up from Wade. Hopefully this would keep her mind occupied until Catherine wakes up.
****
Catherine slowly opened her eyes and glanced around at her surroundings. It felt strange waking up in her bed for the first time in a week, and even stranger being alone. She rolled over and placed her hand on the empty spot next to her. It's funny how she had slept alone for so long but now it suddenly felt unnatural. She missed waking up seeing Jackie in the vacant spot, all curled up in a ball.
Once she gained complete consciousness, she retrieved her phone and saw the message from Jackie. It was 8am. Which meant it was only 5am in California. She decided to be the first to send a text, just incase Jackie had fallen asleep.
C: Good morning Porcupine, are you awake?
Seconds later, Jackie called her.
"I'll take that as a yes?" Catherine laughed.
"Thank God. I've been wanting for you to wake up!"
"Had a long night I assume?"
"Excruciatingly long. I woke up at 1am and fell asleep sometime around 1pm. I'm so sorry that I slept through your call."
"It's okay. I figured you had fallen asleep. I called it an early night too."
"My apartment is depressingly empty and quiet, especially in the middle of the night. I miss you already."
"I miss you too. It was weird not waking up next to you."
The two of them spent nearly two hours on the phone together before finally hanging up. They would have stayed on longer, but Catherine insisted Jackie to take a nap after her rough night; so she would be able to ace her audition the next day. One would think they wouldn't have much to say after staying up and talking the entire night before, and being inseparable for the past week, but they did.
They were as happy as they had ever been, despite the distance, and were finally starting to feel like a supportive and stable pair. Both positive things that were needed going into their three week hiatus from one another.
After her nap, Jackie spent the rest of the night studying and learning her lines while Catherine gave Ethan some much needed attention back in Bloomington.
****
Monday seemed to roll around sooner than Jackie was prepared for once the audition was over with. She came out of the second audition feeling better than she did the first, knowing Catherine had a lot to do with it. Catherine had woken up at 5am just to call and wish Jackie luck, giving her that extra kick of confidence she needed.
Now she was sitting in the airport waiting to board her plane to Europe and trying to stay positive about it.
"Hey, I'm about to board the plane," she said once Catherine picked up the phone.
"Are you okay? You seem more down than usual."
"Yeah, I just want to get this over with."
"I know, it will be over before you know it though. Make sure to stay healthy and take those supplements  that I gave you."
Jackie appreciated Catherine's concern but thought she was overreacting a bit. It was ten days in Europe. She would be fine despite the exhaustion.
"I will, thank you. They're starting to board now so I better get going. I love you."
"Okay, call me when you land. I don't care what time it is. Love you too, be safe."
****
Two days into the trip, Jackie started feeling under the weather. She thought it was just the jet lag but  then she became congested and it started to affect her sleeping. After another day full of interviews, she called Catherine as she usually did. The nine hour time difference actually came to their advantage with Jackie's late nights. She was usually wrapping up her day while Catherine was in the middle of hers.
"Hey Porcupine," Catherine answered.
"Hey, how's your day?"
Catherine ignored the question, "You sound terrible, are you sick?"
Jackie had been hiding her condition from Catherine since she had warned her about this happening.
"Yes, but please spare me the 'I told you so' speech. I beg you."
Catherine laughed, "Typically I would jump all over this, but you sound awful."
"I feel awful. I'm so tired and it doesn't matter how hard I try. I can't get any sleep when I'm hardly even given time to get any."
"Did you take your supplements?"
"Yeah," Jackie responded, trying to sound convincing.
"Jackie..." Catherine pried, not buying Jackie's act.
"Okay, I might have skipped a few. Don't yell at me. My head hurts."
"Aw, poor baby. Can't you tell them to cut back on the schedule a bit?"
Jackie laughed, "Right."
"What's Rachel's number?"
"No, I'm not letting you yell at anyone. I'm a big girl and can handle this."
"Fine, then you need to hang up and go to sleep. Try drinking some tea and for God's sake take the supplements!"
"Okay, I love you."
"Love you too, and Jackie?"
"Yeah?"
"I told you so," Catherine laughed before hanging up the phone.
****
As the days progressed, Jackie just kept getting worse and worse. One day, halfway through the trip, she literally couldn't go on without some relief. While on a break between interviews, she called Catherine.
"I'm dying."
"Put Rachel on the phone. I won't be mean. I just want to tell her what to get you."
Jackie struggled through he rest of the interviews and was apologising for her physical and mental state. After 9 painful hours, her publicist finally pulled her out of her last two interviews after she had spaced out during the previous one.
"Jackie, you need to go back to the hotel and get your act together before tomorrow when we start this all over again. You look like you're on drugs. Do you want those rumours to surface again?"
Not having enough energy to argue, Jackie got in the car with Rachel and headed back to the hotel. Once they arrived, there was a Z-Pak waiting for her at the front desk.
"Catherine's recommendation," Rachel smiled as she handed her the package.
****
By the end of the trip, Jackie had just about enough of her publicists and manager. They had zero sympathy for her the entire time, pushing her to do more and criticising her for not being at her best. She was sick of not being treated like an adult.
Surprisingly Tommy, and Rachel of course, had been her only allies; standing up for her when the rest were beating her down. Without them, she would have been lost. Catherine of course was furious, worried sick about her the entire trip wishing she could be there.
Due to her exhaustion and illness, they weren't able to talk much since Jackie needed to sleep any chance she was given. Their last day was the Amsterdam premiere and Jackie was finally feeling better. All thanks to Catherine's Z-Pak.
Before heading to the premiere, she gave a quick call to Catherine.
"Hey stranger, how do you feel?" Catherine asked.
"Hey, I'm sorry that we haven't spoken much. I feel so much better though, thanks so much for the medicine. You are a lifesaver."
"Good. You sound much better. It's okay, I would rather have you rested and healthy."
As good as she was at disgusting it, Catherine was miserable. The last week and a half had been brutal not talking to Jackie, and she spent most of her time angry at the people surrounding her. She really liked Rachel but being her assistant, she wished she would have stepped up a little more to defend Jackie and her health. If she would have been there herself, things would have been a lot different.
While she was talking to Jackie on the phone, she suddenly heard Tommy's voice in the background and Jackie giggling. She was ignoring Catherine on the phone.
"Hey, so I heard some good news today," Catherine said, trying to get Jackie's attention back.
It didn't work. Jackie was still laughing and talking to Tommy. Someone sure was feeling better and it was starting to anger Catherine that she was wasting the little time they had by fooling around with Tommy, who had been with her all week.
"Jackie..."
"Yeah? What? I'm sorry, Tommy had to tell me something."
"It's okay," Catherine tried to control her temper but she just kept picturing Tommy putting his hands on her.
"Did you say something about good news?" Jackie asked, interrupting her thoughts.
"UCLA called. I have a second interview this week!"
"No way! I'm so excited and happy! Now you can come and visit me in LA more often!"
Once again, Tommy interrupted them.
"So you and Tommy are on good terms again I see."
"Yeah, him and Rachel have really helped me out this week when everyone else has been so cruel."
Jealousy suddenly filled Catherine's body. She should be there taking care of Jackie, not Tommy. How was he taking care of her? Was he in her bedroom alone with her?
"Has he been behaving?" Catherine asked instead.
"Hold on a second."
Catherine heard Jackie move the phone away from her mouth.
"Hey Tommy, can you give me a sec? I'll meet you downstairs."
After the sound of a door was closing, Jackie began talking again.
"You're not getting upset about this, are you?"
"I can't say I'm particularly thrilled with you being distracted by Tommy the entire time we've been talking. Considering we hardly have been table to talk all week."
"I'm sorry, you're right. Things just get a little crazy around here during premiere days. I just kicked him out though, so I'm all yours."
"I just wish I could've been there to take care of you, rather than him."
There were plenty of other words Catherine had about Tommy, but she refrained from doing so. She didn't want to come off as crazy or jealous.
"I know. Trust me. I would much rather having you here with me than him. I miss you so much."
Before Jackie had to go, they ended on a positive note but Catherine still couldn't wait for her to get home and be away from Tommy. She trusted Jackie but Tommy not so much.
Jackie stared out the limo window, thinking about her  phone call with Catherine. She felt guilty that she was distracted by Tommy but in no way was it intentional. She couldn't imagine Catherine jetting off to Europe for ten days with someone she shared a past with, especially the kind they had. The publicists interrupted her thoughts by barking orders at her as usual and pushing her further to her limit.
Before stepping out of the limo, she sent Catherine  one last text.
J: I'm going to make this up to you xo
A/n Thanks for reading my story. Please vote and drop a comment. Comments will help me a lot more than you might think. â¤ï¸