Chapter Text
The couple of weeks following her arrival went by smoothly for Caitlyn. Smoother than that first day, at least. She found herself easily settling in quite well, and was able to establish a daily routine for herself almost immediately. She learned very quickly that having to follow a strict schedule was unnecessary, as her days so far frequently involved sitting down at her work desk for extended periods of time. But putting a structure to things was like second nature to her, and she wasn’t ready to change that part of herself just yet.
She did hope to change in some way though, at some point. She wanted to. She felt that she needed it.
It was one of the reasons she came to Runeterra to begin with.
The place first caught her attention about a year before, when she saw a photo of the park taken by her older brother, Jayce. The photo captured the view right by the lake, not far from where Caitlyn ended up being stationed. He apparently went there to camp for several nights, in an attempt to temporarily free his mind from the stress of running Hextech, his own AI company. Caitlyn vaguely remembers her brother asking if she wanted to go on that camping trip, but has totally forgotten what she told him. It was during a time of her life that she nowadays tries hard not to remember.
“Can I keep this?” she asked, as she held onto the photo. She felt drawn to it somehow. “It’s very relaxing to look at.”
“Of course, sprout,” he answered. Jayce always sounded so confident about everything. It was something that came in handy whenever he helped Caitlyn get out of trouble. “Maybe we can go together next time.”
Not long after that, when she told him that she had taken a job as a park ranger at the place in the photo that he gave her, he was concerned, but also unsurprised. “When I told you that place is amazing, I didn’t say you should move there, you know,” he joked. “But Cait, just… Don’t get lost, ok?”
She knew her brother wasn’t talking about physically losing her way in the forest.
“I won’t.”
At the lookout, Caitlyn’s day was shaping up to be similar to the ones before: quiet and uneventful. She was still in the process of trying to shake off the discomfort that frequently came up, as she felt her life starting to move at a far slower pace than she had been used to, but she liked to think she was making some progress. Talking to the visitors she encountered every now and then helped a lot with that. Engaging people who are out to spend a leisurely day at the park gave her a lot of insight on the value of taking the time to take a pause. That also made her realize that for the longest time, she’d been living like she’s always on a deadline. And that it’s going to be a hard habit to kick.
She took a glance at the clock as she was fixing herself her late afternoon cup of tea. It was right around that time of the day when Maddie would check in. The deputy ranger had become her main point-of-contact since she moved there. She never heard from Vi after their rather unpleasant hike together weeks before, except maybe for the couple of times when she overheard Vi ask Maddie to relay some reminders. She figured that she’d struck a nerve when she accused Vi of not taking the job seriously.
If Caitlyn was being totally honest, she actually appreciated Vi trying to make conversation and making an effort to keep things casual.
If she was being totally honest, she actually found it kind of sweet.
But Caitlyn had spent too much time and sacrificed too many things for so many years trying to make sure she was always taken seriously at her job. It was the only way she knew how to function. She made a mental note to further clarify herself to Vi, if they ever talk again. Vi didn’t seem so bad, all things considered. Honestly, she’s even kind of attract-
“Caitlyn? It’s Maddie. Are you there?”
Caitlyn walked over to her work desk and picked up her radio. “Here. Just one group of campers near the lake tonight for monitoring, so far we’re good. Quiet as usual.”
“Ah, that’s always nice to hear,” Maddie answered. “By the way, I’m finishing up the list for our supply delivery. If you have any requests, let me know. I’ll make sure to include it.”
Caitlyn knew well enough to recognize that Maddie’s growingly frequent offers to do something special for her were a tad bit beyond being friendly. And while she wasn’t particularly keen on reciprocating, she did appreciate the warmth. “Nothing particular comes to mind, so perhaps just the usual? But thank you, Maddie. You’re so kind.”
About an hour after the check-in with Maddie, Caitlyn was alerted by a sudden popping sound coming from a distance. She immediately stood up and scanned her view from all directions, looking for a sign of where it came from. For a moment, Caitlyn feared for the worst. Was that a gunshot? But when the sound went off again and she turned towards the direction of the lake, she realized what it was: fireworks.
Caitlyn let out a deep sigh. As distressing as it was that some campers brought fireworks, she was still relieved that the sound wasn’t from a gun. She figures it will take some time before she unlearns to expect a gun in every situation.
She grabbed her bag with her flashlight and emergency supplies and then pinged Maddie on the radio. “Maddie, it’s Caitlyn. It looks like some campers have brought fireworks. I’m going by the lake to check on them.”
Caitlyn was already well on her way down the lookout tower when Maddie responded. “Fireworks? What the hell! That’s prohibited! Hold on, Caitlyn. I’ll go tell Vi.”
But Caitlyn didn’t want to wait. Sure, she was beginning to understand the wisdom in taking one’s time, but this was different. Those campers certainly weren’t going to wait before they lit up more fireworks and potentially set something on fire. This was not the time to wait.
“Maddie, it’s ok. I’ve got it. I’m on my way there now.” Caitlyn clipped her radio onto her shoulder and practically ran down the trail leading to the lake. As she was getting deeper into the woods, Caitlyn realized that it was starting to get a little dark, and that she’d never been in that area that late. She took it as a chance to put her navigation skills to the test.
When she reached the trail near the side of the lake, she noticed a couple of empty beer cans on top of a rock nearby. Alcohol and fireworks. Of course.
She walked closer to the camping area and started to hear peoples’ voices. There were two of them. Both men.
“Kiramman, where are you?”
The voice coming from the radio was different. It was Vi.
Caitlyn held her radio in one hand while she held her flashlight towards the path in front of her with the other. “At the lake. I’m going to talk to the campers setting off the fireworks. I can handle it.”
“You don’t know what kind of people you’re dealing with,” the voice said. “Stand down and wait for me there.”
Caitlyn was perplexed. What is with all the waiting? “I said I can handle it,” she repeated sternly. She walked slowly to the camp area, expecting to be met by two strangers. She saw a tent, more beer cans, more fireworks, some clothes strewn around, but no campers.
What the fuck?
Vi said something over the radio but the sound was drowned out by the sound of the two other voices coming from somewhere in the lake. Much to Caitlyn’s annoyance, the two drunk campers who had set off fireworks were skinny dipping.
“Heeey! Want to join us?” one of the men shouted. “The water is great.”
Caitlyn rolled her eyes. She felt stupidly naive for ever thinking that working in the middle of nowhere meant no longer having to encounter men like these two. “Drinking alcohol, setting off fireworks, littering, and swimming in the lake are all prohibited actions within this park!” she shouted. “Your camping privileges have been revoked. Please leave!”
“Oh come on,” the other man answered, his words slurring. “We were just having some fun. Ok, we’ll stop with the fireworks, just, come on,” he splashed some water towards Caitlyn’s direction. “Join us, beautiful!”
Caitlyn felt her ears get hot. She had trained herself to stay cool in situations like these and to tune out men’s stupid comments, but it had been a while and her tolerance had gotten very very low.
It also didn’t help that Vi was going off on the radio again. “I told you to stand down, Kiramman. What’s going on?”
Caitlyn pressed the button on her radio and held it close to her mouth. “I’m handling it, Violet. I’ll tell you when I’m done handling it. Please, let me do my job.”
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Vi started to regret not adding an extra bottle of whiskey to their last supply order. She was freshly out of stock and could really use a drink.
She’s so stubborn, fucking hell!
When Maddie informed her that Caitlyn had set off to confront some campers by the lake, Vi immediately checked their records to see who requested a permit to camp there that night. She learned that they were regular visitors – two middle-aged men who had been reported twice before for excessive noise. But while they were generally harmless, it’d been an open secret that the said men always brought beer to the camp, and Vi knew that situations with drunk people were always hard to predict. She knew that all too well.
If she was being honest, she almost blanked out half an hour ago while trying to decide whether to instruct Caitlyn to confront the campers or not.
Because if she was being totally honest, she would’ve done the same thing that Caitlyn did.
But Vi was always far more comfortable taking risks by herself than letting other people take them. She just found it easier to deal with things that way. She decided she’ll discuss it properly with Caitlyn, if they ever speak again. The new ranger seemed pretty tough, in all fairness. Honestly, she’s pretty ho-
“Vi,” Maddie called from inside the lookout. “I’ve pinged Caitlyn’s radio thrice, but still no answer.”
Vi got up from the wooden stairsteps where she was seated and went inside. She grabbed the binoculars from Maddie’s desk and looked through them. From the distance, she can make out that the blinds in the Undercity lookout were still up and a light was on inside. But she couldn’t see Caitlyn anywhere.
“What do we do?” Maddie asked.
The last they heard from Caitlyn was when she let Maddie know that she was on her way back to the lookout after speaking with the men by the lake. She didn’t give a lot of details on what exactly happened, except that the issue had been “resolved”, whatever that meant.
Vi picked up her belt from her chair and put it on. “Keep pinging her radio. If you don’t get a response within the next fifteen minutes, tell Vander. I’m going to check the lookout.”
“Do you think something happened?” Maddie called out after Vi, as the latter was jumping her way down the stairs of the tower.
“Probably not,” Vi answered, almost shouting. “But I need to be sure.”
Vi took the chains off the bike tied to one of the big columns of the lookout. They only ever used it for emergencies. Vi begged Vander a long time ago to get them an actual motorcycle to use around the park, but Vander explained that that would make a lot of noise and scare the wildlife.Vi understood, but still. A motorcycle would’ve been badass .
As Vi pedalled her way through the trail leading to Undercity, she couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to Caitlyn and those campers, and if the incident was related to why the new park ranger was unresponsive. Should she not have believed it when Caitlyn said she can handle the situation? Strangely, even the thought of it felt wrong.
Her mind inevitably went to the thought that something bad might have happened. Somehow that made more sense than Caitlyn leaving the radio unattended for a long time. What if the drunk campers went after her after their confrontation?
Vi was almost at the lookout, and from afar she could see that one of the floodlights at the bottom of the tower was on. The sight gave her some relief, as it likely meant that Caitlyn was really able to make it to the lookout after all.
Vi slowly squeezed the brakes on the bike handles as she approached the clearing surrounding the lookout. She tried her best to catch her breath, after going faster on the bike than she had ever gone recently. But the sight she arrived at, if she was being honest, made her heart race faster even more.
Caitlyn was drenched in sweat. The parts of her hair that weren’t caught by her ponytail were sticking to the sides of her face, and to her neck. She was wearing a black tank top and their standard issue beige work shorts, and was repeatedly swinging an axe down pieces of firewood. She was splitting each piece with stunning accuracy. The muscles on her arms were glistening in areas where the light hit, and drops of sweat were rolling off of them, almost like she had been in the water. She looked focused, or angry. Or both.
Vi was suddenly very conscious of how the inside of her mouth felt. She lost track of how long she’d been standing there before Caitlyn glanced at her in between swings. It could have been for ages, for all she knew. Both of them seemed lost in the moment.
“Are you here to reprimand me, Violet?”
Caitlyn’s tone was curt, and all the details on why Vi was there to begin with suddenly came crashing back into her mind like a wave.
“You weren’t responding on the radio,” Vi answered, matching Caitlyn’s tone. “What happened to the campers by the lake?”
She noticed Caitlyn suddenly turning her head to an area at the bottom of the stairs leading up the lookout, like there was something that was supposed to be there. There wasn’t. Caitlyn turned back to her with a less angry look on her face, but still just as focused. “I left the radio upstairs and lost track of time,” Caitlyn answered, kicking the piece of wood she’d just chopped up. “As for the campers, I managed them.”
Vi was about to respond when she heard Maddie’s voice from her radio. “Vi? Are you there? I just talked to Chief Vander. He said the two campers went to the main ranger office just now and apologized for their violations. He cancelled their permit and they’re not allowed to visit for thirty days. Have you gotten hold of Caitlyn?”
Caitlyn set down the axe on a nearby log and kept her eyes on Vi as they both listened to Maddie’s update. It was like she was waiting, watching, to see how Vi would react. Meanwhile, Vi had to actively keep her eyes on Caitlyn’s, to avoid looking at anything else. She grabbed her radio and replied. “Thanks, Nolen. She’s here at the lookout. I’ll be back soon.”
Vi finally got off the bike, letting it fall on its side on the ground. She walked a bit closer to Caitlyn, who then had just picked up a bottle of water on the ground and started drinking its content. Her face was flushed, Vi noticed, now that she had a better view. Sweat was dripping down her neck, to the middle of her tank top, to her chest.
Vi knew she shouldn’t be thinking about that.
“You do know you’ll barely need firewood here, right?”
Vi realized that her tone might have sounded like she was teasing, which was probably not the best idea in the moment, but seeing Caitlyn in that state made her insides feel like a bomb that needed diffusing. She had to shift that energy somehow.
“I know,” Caitlyn answered flatly, grabbing the axe again. She raised it above her head, and unknowingly gave Vi a good view of her flexed triceps before she swung down, slicing the piece of wood in front of her cleanly in half. “I don’t need the firewood. I just need to chop something off with an axe.”
Vi bit the inside of her cheeks. This was not how she imagined her evening would go.
“Did those creeps rile you up?” She started, trying to get the conversation, but mostly herself, back to the topic. “What did you tell them, anyway?”
Caitlyn looked back at her curiously. “Does it really matter what I told them?”
She was right, Vi thought. It didn’t really matter, in the grand scheme of things. But Vi was curious, truly curious, about how this woman operated. She raised an eyebrow, carefully considering revealing her motive. “Humor me, Kiramman.”
“Alright,” Caitlyn started. She set the axe down again, to Vi’s relief. “I put myself in a position where I had something that they wanted.”
Vi furrowed her eyebrows. She couldn’t imagine there’d be anything that two creepy middle-aged men wouldn’t want from Caitlyn. The thought stumbled out of her mouth before she had the time to realize what saying them out loud could mean.
“Oh come on, what could anyone not want from you.”
Vi watched in well-hidden terror as Caitlyn stared at her, curiously, like she’s reading between the lines. But whatever Caitlyn took from it seemed to catch her off-guard, Vi noticed. She crossed her arms, and her posture changed ever so slightly.
“I.. I meant.. their clothes,” Caitlyn responded, as close to stammering as Vi had ever heard her. “I noticed they were swimming without clothes on, and they didn’t seem to be the type to bring clothes to spare.” She quickly gained composure as she started to recall the incident, like a machine setting back to gear. “They discarded their clothes all over the lake shore, so I told them that their clothes were technically rubbish, and that I could either collect their clothes and let them leave the park naked, or they could leave with their clothes on and apologize for their violations.”
Vi was surprised. And honestly, impressed. She wasn’t sure if she would’ve handled it the same way if she was there. She probably would’ve fought with those men and got in trouble. Again.
“I came down here to blow off some steam because those unwieldy men got me properly pissed off, but now I need a shower,” Caitlyn continued. “Now I know you’re dying to give me a lecture about whatever thing I did wrong, or how I didn’t follow your order to stand down, so please let’s just go on with it.”
Vi tried not to picture Caitlyn in the shower. She just had to mention that, didn’t she?
“I didn’t come here for that,” Vi finally answered. “You weren’t responding on the radio and you didn’t exactly tell us what happened. We were concerned.” She made sure to say we , to include Maddie into the fold, and as a general declaration to Caitlyn, to herself, and to the world, that this was a work-related conversation.
“You were concerned about what? That I didn’t do the job well?”
Caitlyn tried to seem irritated and impatient, but what she truly sounded like was worried. Vi realized that there must be something more to this, more to why Caitlyn was conscious about whether she is seen as doing a job well or not. This was like the buzzing of that hornet’s nest.
“No, that’s not it,” Vi bit back. She felt that this was something she shouldn’t take personally, but she also didn’t want to let Caitlyn think that the job was purely all she came there for. She bit her lip for a moment, rethinking what she was about to say, but went on anyway.
“I don’t care about those campers.”
There was a second half to that statement. It hung in the air, and Vi wondered if Caitlyn would go ahead and ask what the other half was. It seemed like the logical thing to do. It seemed like the logical thing to ask about.
Then why are you here?
But Caitlyn only looked back at her without a word. Like she already knew the answer to the question she hadn’t even asked.
Vi walked back to the bike and turned it over, towards the direction of the trail. She suddenly reconsidered if she should’ve just waited a little longer before making her way there. Maybe she should just keep her distance. Because this was starting to feel like it was something that can be worse than cracking open a hornet’s nest.