Author's Note: This is a mini-sequel to my fanfic 'The Coldest Heart'. Cassie's entire existence and other references made in this story probably won't make sense unless you've read it. Just for a head's up.
Also, though Cassie is 19, I'll continue referring to her as 'girl' instead of woman for two reasons. Number 1: Less confusion for me. Number 2: She acts more like a child than an adult anyway.
Disclaimer: White Collar does not belong to me. My OC however is all my creation.
Let's Play a Game
Cassandra Caffrey was much too quiet for her own good. Nineteen years of being forced to tiptoe around a deranged man had served for good practice. A great skill if she was trying to be sneaky. Unfortunately, it was unnerving to Neal to know she existed and hearing barely two words out of her mouth.
Morning had dawned on a new day with Neal looking over some new cases. Cassie was sitting across from him. She had her own room in the house, courtesy of June. However, it was just a room and nothing more. Thus she preferred to sit at the table drinking coffee with her brother. Usually she provided at least a little conversation, but today she was completely silent as she peered over her portion of the paper. The classifieds.
Almost a month had passed since the nineteen year old had been released on probation. Now that Neal thought about it, he and his sister had not stopped to talk about serious stuff since then. He had a sense that something was bothering her.
Putting down his folder, he surveyed the girl closely. The youth was circling things on the paper with a pen, but he couldn't quite see what she was doing. Curious, he leaned forward.
"Whatcha doing?" he asked, playfully.
The teen paused, looking up. Seeing the close proximity of her brother, she pulled the paper under the sleeve of her shirt, hiding it from his view. Neal's eyebrows rose slightly, to think his sister was trying to hide things from him. Her mentor, the man who had taught her every trick she knew.
He stared at her, his blue eyed gaze as penetrating as an x-ray. Cassie grabbed for her coffee, suddenly. The consultant could not help but think about a remix to the Twix commercial. Need a moment. Swallow it over with Italian Roast coffee. The thought made Neal chuckle making his sister ever more suspicious.
"I'm not doing anything," she answered, putting her coffee down.
She looked back down at her paper, pulling it out from under her sleeve a little. Before she was able to put further protection up, Neal snatched the newspaper away from her. Cas grabbed for it, but he held it above her head while looking over the circle marks. Francis' Music Store. Yours Truly Clothing. York's Coffee. Neal had no idea what he was looking at. He could only imagine that his sister was planning an art heist, but he doubted that.
"Give it back, Neal!" the girl's voice cried, breaking into his confusion, "I'm not in the mood for games,"
An idea occurred to Neal. One that could help him get a little bit of information out of his sister while allowing her to get some of her own. A win-win situation. Only if she agreed, of course. The consultant sat down, placing the newspaper out of his sister's reach. She glared at him. If there was on thing that his sister's wasn't was a morning person.
Taking a sip of his coffee, Neal smiled over the rim, "Let's play a game,"
Cassie stiffened. She knew that it was all over. She knew that her father was never coming back to harass her and Neal. Nevertheless, there were four words in the world that she would rather never hear together in a sentence ever again. She could feel the fear erupting in her heart, blood thumping in her ears. A memory of the ordeal it had endured. Neal blanched when he realized his mistake.
"Twenty questions?" he finished, quickly.
The girl relaxed, slowly sliding back into her seat. She knew that game, two forms of it actually. There was the original form of twenty questions that involved one person thinking of a word and the other players asking twenty questions in an attempt to guess the word. And then there was the Caffrey family version. Two players, usually it had always been Neal and Cassie. Each of them got ten questions to ask each other. The only rule was that you had to answer honestly. No matter what. It had been the easiest way to get information out of one another. With each of them more like children than adults; it had the childishness to it that made everything seem worth it. Cassie could refuse to play, but just like her brother, she had some questions to ask. A few missing pieces of a puzzle she needed to finish.
"Fine. You first," she replied, leaning over the table.
Neal nodded, a smile playing on his lips. "What's with all the circled areas?"
The girl shrugged. What an easy question. "Looking for a job,"
With the surprised look that followed, she had a suspicion that her brother had suspected she was doing something illegal. The thought almost made Cas laugh. She too was bound to a two-mile radius like her brother. An anklet that monitored her whereabouts at all times chafed her leg every hour. Same as Neal. But, he broke the rules all the time, or at least that was what she heard from Peter. To think that she, the good one, would ever do that was almost unthinkable.
She asked the first question that came to mind from the mental list she had created. "What is it like working for the FBI?"
Neal pondered on his sister's question for a long time. Just with her first question she had shown that she was serious about this game. She wanted some information too.
"Playing for the other team is a little interesting," he responded.
To this Cassie gave a curt nod, urging him to take his turn. "Why do you want a job?"
This elicited a laugh from the girl followed by a look of pure disbelief. "Because I've got to be an honest citizen now. I'm bored sitting around here all day and I need money,"
Neal raised an eyebrow at the answer, but he gave his sister his turn. He would have to waste another question to ask further, but he didn't mind.
"What's it like working with Peter as a partner?"
Cassie adored Peter. He was almost like the father she never had. Or at least the father she would have rather had. He had taught her more than a few things in the past. But, truthfully, she had no idea how Neal himself got along with him.
"It's…ummm, okay, I guess?" he stumbled.
He wasn't lying really, but how could he explain the relationship he and Peter had? It was like fire and ice, lollipops and black licorice. They were two sides of the same coin. The serious one and the childish one. One could never exist without the other. But how could he explain that in words?
Luckily for him, Cas accepted the answer. She didn't challenge it as a lie. So, he moved on to his next question. "Why money? You've never been one for material things," he stated.
The teenager nodded a few times, thinking to herself. "Truthfully, I-I'd like to go to college. I think I'd study psychology or something like that,"
This took Neal completely by surprise. For a long time, he stared at his sister incredulously. Bothered by the look he was giving her, the girl finally interrupted him by asking her next question.
"What do you think Peter thinks about your partnership?" she asked.
Inwardly, Neal groaned. Why had he even asked to play this game again? He hadn't known his sister was going to ask such personal questions. If he lied to her, she would be angry with him for months, possibly years. She would never forgive him. It was just the way the game worked. The whole truth and nothing but. He looked up to the ceiling as if the architecture would give him some clue.
"I think he sees me as an annoyance a lot of the time, but I like to think that he sees me as a partner other times," he finally replied, his voice softer as he looked back to his sister.
It was his turn now. He had the best question ever. Since Cassie was going to get all deep and serious with her questions, then so was he.
He spoke seriously, almost as if he was going to punish her, "Where did you go?"
Almost instantly the teen knew what he was talking about. The year and a half after she had ran away from her foster home before she had gotten arrested, where had she run off to? Uneasiness spread through the girl and she fiddled nervously with her hair.
"Kate,"
The look in her brother's eyes scared Cas. His blue eyes went from surprised to hurt. A thought dawned on her when she realized that she hadn't even seen or heard tale of Kate for awhile. Looking around, as if she suddenly could find some clue to the woman's existence, she asked her next question.
"Where is she?"
The pain in Neal's eyes couldn't be missed. Cas wanted to take back the question. She didn't know why, but she just did. Something about it seemed to have a bad effect on her brother. His eyes welled with tears, but he wiped them away with an angry hand. He looked down at his fingers, looking for a wedding band that he wished had actually existed.
"She's gone," he said, his voice gravelly from forcing back the emotion threatening to pour out, "Never coming back,"
Cas didn't know how she knew that Kate was dead. Neal did not explain it very well and she didn't want to push it. The effect it had on him was scary. A few minutes was the time it took for the ex-con artist to pull himself together. Eyeing his sister seriously, he asked, "Why didn't she tell me that you were with her?"
Now it was the teen's turn to look at her fingers uncomfortably. "I kind of told her not to tell you,"
Neal stared, his frustration starting to rise. To think that his sister had been with Kate the entire time. All that time that he had been worried about her.
"What happened?"
The question took Neal by surprise. He had been lost in his thoughts of the past.
He sighed, knowing that he had to come to terms with it eventually. "A man led me on a goose chase for the last year after her, then blew up the plane she was on,"
Cassie cried out in horror at this. She had been attached to Kate. Not as much as Mozzie and Peter and Neal, but the woman had still played a big part in her life. Then suddenly, something dawned on the youth. Her eyes narrowed angrily at her older brother.
"You've been out for an entire year?" she inquired, trying to keep her tone even.
"Yes," replied Neal, somewhat confused at the sudden change in his sister's facial expressions.
To this answer, the girl narrowed her eyes even more. She leaned back in the chair, crossing her arms over her chest. Neal didn't pay attention, too worried about asking the next question. This game had led to interesting information. Maybe Kate had left some kind of information with Cassie.
"Did she say anything to you? Out of the ordinary?" he asked his tone somewhat excited.
"No," was her brusque reply.
Confusion settled over Neal as he noticed the way his sister was sitting. Her facial expression and the body language she was presenting. It was kind of obvious that she was upset.
"Did I do something to upset you?" he asked, thoroughly confused about the dirty looks he was getting.
"No," she replied, picking at her sleeves with disdain.
Anger flooded through Neal now. His sister was breaking the rules. After he had already considered it and thrown away the idea because he hadn't wanted to disappoint her.
"You're lying now?" he asked, not truly sure he wanted to directly accuse her.
The teen looked up, a smirk playing on her lips as her gaze met his. The look she gave sent chills down his spine. "Not a bit,"
"Will you cut it out and tell me what's wrong?" he snapped, breaking away from the game.
"I don't think I will," she replied. She sounded almost like she was teasing except in that cruel way that bullies did sometimes.
"Is it Kate?" he asked, wanting to know what had gotten into his sister.
The girl smiled and shook her head in disappointment, chuckling as she did so, "No,"
"What is wrong then?"
By this time, Cassie had started clearing away her things. Gathering, the unguarded classified ads and coffee in her arms as she stood. She looked back at him with a fake smile. "Uh-uh Neal Caffrey, you are out of questions,"
With that, the teenager turned towards the door, heading towards her room down the hall. Neal ran after her, catching up as she opened the door.
"Cas, please?"
She turned around in response to his plea, but he started to wish he hadn't. There was such a cold look in the teen's eyes. She looked hurt.
"Would it have hurt to visit once?" she asked, her voice cracking as she bit back a sob, "Just once?"
Understanding dawned on the man. He suddenly felt like such a sham, a complete jerk. Truthfully, he had been so worried about Kate. The thought of visiting his sister had never come up. She had been within his two mile radius yes and that made it all the worse that he had forgotten. He hadn't even thought about it until the events of a month before with the secret folder. Kate had been given his undivided attention. Cas had been a vague thought in the back of his mind. She was in jail and an adult; she didn't need him visiting her. But that was just an excuse for his carelessness and he knew it.
"Cassie, I didn't mean to…," he apologized.
Cas interrupted him with a stubborn laugh. "Yeah right,"
A sound downstairs caught her attention and she looked in the direction of the stairs. She turned back to her brother who was almost ready to spout off another apology.
"Forget it. You can make up for it later," she said, eyes empty, "Go get dressed, Peter's here,"
Sure enough, a minute later, Peter Burke appeared at the top of the stairs. With a quiet, 'hello', Cassie disappeared, her quiet nature as she walked away reminding the agent of a ghost. Turning his head in confusion to his partner, he received a disgruntled shrug.
"Sibling rivalry,"
He walked off to get dressed leaving Peter to stand out in the hall. But inside his room, the consultant wasn't getting dressed. Instead he was thinking about the mistake he had made and how impossible it was to unmake it. He didn't know how he could make up for it. He wished that it was easy as saying he was sorry. Remembering Kate, Neal sighed.
Sorry didn't cut it anymore.