32 for Regina/Cady! (In case you need it, no pressure. I LOVED your first answer and will now be stalking all your work for this ship, respectfully.)
32. “I think I’m in love with you and I’m terrified.”
Cady's never seen a dead person. Sure, she's seen plenty of dead animals, but not a living, breathing person.
Well, not living or breathing, technically. But they would have been. Once.
And it turns out Regina isn't dead, even though for a few terrifying, gut-wrenching hours, Cady really thought she was.
(For real, #RIPRegina was trending.)
Cady practically collapses to the floor when Mrs. George calls her and asks her if she wants to see Regina. She leaves the house immediately, not caring that she's in her most worn pair of sweatpants and she hasn't washed her hair in two days.
Mrs. George gives her a long, warm hug when Cady arrives, something she didn't realize she needed so desperately until the pain in her chest lessens, just a little. She shows Cady to the door of Regina's room and, with a comforting squeeze of Cady's arm, tells her she's going to get some coffee.
Regina should look terrible. There's a nasty cut on her pale cheekbone and road rash on her arm, her hair obviously unwashed, and a large brace circling her neck and pushing her cheeks up to give her an almost chipmunk-like appearance.
Cady thinks it's the most beautiful sight she's ever seen.
Cautiously, she sits in the chair beside Regina's bed and tentatively touches her hand to Regina's. There is an IV in the back of Regina's hand, but warm to the touch, reassuring Cady that Regina is undeniably alive.
And that's all Cady needs to break down again.
"God, Regina," Cady whispers, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. "I was so scared. I thought you were dead. I thought I'd never get to tell you that... that I..."
And Cady tries to remember what she's heard about talking to people in comas—can they hear you? Will they remember? Because when she saw Regina get hit by that bus, she realized two things: One, that Janis insisting that the buses won't actually hit them if they cross the parking lot without looking is definitely not true.
And two, that she has feelings for Regina George. Big, terrifying, overwhelming, beautiful, embarrassing, deep feelings.
"I think I'm in love with you and I'm terrified," Cady confesses. It feels strangely freeing. "And I don't even care if you don't feel the same way, because I really thought that I had lost you and... I don't even know what I would have done."
Then Cady swears she feels Regina squeeze her hand, just a little. And Cady basically stops breathing, because she can't decide whether she wants Regina to have heard what she said or not. Both options seem equally scary.
"Regina? Can you hear me?" Cady asks, but there's no response, no noise in the room but the rhythmic beeping of the monitors and Cady's own breathing.
When it seems like she's in the clear, carefully, so carefully, Cady lifts Regina's hand and presses a kiss to her knuckles.
She kind of hopes Regina remembers that.
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