While Cassidy and Lily began driving, the first few minutes were quiet. Finally, Cassidy broke the silence, "I'm sorry." He said, "For yankin' y'out of there like that, that is." He clarified, "Not sorry fer tellin' Jess." Lily sighed, her eyes closed, "Wow." She said flatly, "An apology of the ages, Cassidy." She groveled. "I didn't want t'do any o'that." Cassidy said genuinely, ignoring her snide remark, "Listenin' t'ye kick n'scream like that - I didn't enjoy it at all. I can't believe he did that t'me. T'you." He said in a hurt manner.
Without any energy left in her, she sighed, "Yea.." She swallowed the lump in her throat, passing a quick glance to him before staring back out the window.
"Tulip told me she wasn't in any kind o'trouble." Cassidy groaned lowly with his eyes moving from the road to her for a moment, "Yet 'ere y'are, all tattered n'bruised. Doesn't look like no trouble t'me." He shook his head and Lily raised a brow with a chuckle at his effort to try and persuade her he was right all along, "Tulip was right. There was no trouble. Until Jesse was thrown into the equation." She countered, favoring her argument. She sighed, glancing at the street lights, "Leave it to Jesse to find trouble where there shouldn't be." Lily groaned.
Not long after they'd made it back to the apartment. When the front door handle to the apartment began to jiggle, Tulip couldn't help but stand up from the kitchen table she was sitting at. As she saw Cassidy walk in, Lily stepped into the apartment from behind him. Not only was her image shocking - her clothes ripped, her skin covered in filth and dried blood - but her spirit was visually deflated. She was obviously emotionally and physically exhausted.
Cassidy closed the door behind them as Lily looked at Tulip dreadfully.
"Jesus, Lil." Tulip gasped as she paced quickly towards her. Tulip grabbed her shoulders, looking her up at down, "You alright? What do ya need? What happened?" Lily smiled feebly, "I've been worse." With dewy eyes, Tulip laughed nervously, "Yea." She nodded, her smile fading quickly as she cleared her throat, "Here." She pulled at Lily to sit at the kitchen table as she quickly ran towards the washroom. Cassidy placed his hands in his pockets as he stood beside Lily, watching her wince slightly as she lifted her legs onto the chair in front of her, letting out a sigh as her body relaxed.
Tulip came back in a flash, a first aid kid in her arms as she slammed it on the kitchen table and scrambled through it.
"What happened? Where's Jesse? Did you talk him out of it? Did Cassidy talk him out of it?!" Tulip asked as if Cassidy wasn't standing right there.
"Hmph." Lily laughed halfheartedly. Tulip's busy hands that were sifting through the first aid kit stopped at the same time she looked up to Lily with wide, concerned eyes, "Well that doesn't sound so reassuring." Tulip whined, her eyes flickering to Cassidy quickly before she continued to grab things from the messy first aid kit.
Lily rubbed her face and looked to Tulip sympathetically, "I'm sorry, Tulip." With her lips pursed,"Cassidy really did say a lot of things." She said more genuinely - not lying but not being straightforward, either. And Tulip caught that, of course. Her eyes glanced at her quickly before she removed the ripped blouse around Lily's upper arm, the fabric and dry blood stuck to the raw wound. Lily winced, catching Tulip's questioning eyes. "Barb wire wrapped around a metal bar caught me." Lily explained quickly before clearing her throat quick.
"So," Tulip said, bending to get eye to eye to examine Lily's wound, "These things Cassidy said. What were they?" Lily shrugged her one shoulder, "Lots. You know how he talks."
"Wot's that suppose t'mean?" Cassidy chimed in, looking down at them as stepped close to them, staring down at the two of them as he was in the middle. Tulip tilted her head up quickly, glaring at Cassidy and unknowingly clenched her hands in anger at Cassidy's voice as Lily silently scrunched her face in pain at Tulip's tight squeeze against her fresh wound on her upper arm, "It means you're a big fuckin' idiot and don't know how to talk!" Tulip squeezed extra hard at the end as she spat upward towards Cassidy,"Ow!" Lily said in more annoyance than pain, flinching as she sat up straight and grabbed Tulip's hands with her free hand, "Fuck, Tulip. Jesus Fuck!" Lily groaned in pain as she stared down at her wound around her arm. In an instant, it had opened up again under Tulip's angry grasp and the alcohol burned into it.
"Shit." Tulip hissed quietly, letting go of Lily's arm, "Shit. Shit. Shit. Sorry, Lil! I don't know what's wrong with me." Lily looked at her arm, blood surfacing again as it began dripping a steady stream onto the floor. She growled annoyingly, "You know how long that took me to clot this fucking thing?" Lily spat bitterly, snagging some gauze from the table as she tried not to drip blood onto the table top while she reached. By the time she'd sat back down she'd already regretted her harsh tone towards Tulip - regardless of the pain. With Lily's face softening as she glanced at Tulip, Tulip saw that, knowing she hadn't meant to sound so harsh towards her.
As this was happening, Cassidy first watched as the blood pooled out of the open cut, then drizzle down her arm, dripping to the ground. It glistened a beautiful crimson and, sure, it smelt amazing, but oddly for once he felt no urge for it. He was confused. Cassidy cautiously took a step back, only by habit, as he continued to watch the steady stream of red pour out, waiting for his instincts to take over and feel the familiar feeling of temptation - but it didn't happen. Soon he realized the cautious step back hadn't been necessary at all.
With too much curiosity in him, Cassidy felt the need to push his limits, "Here." He said calmly, shifting his weight and stepping back towards her, grabbing a fresh cloth on the table and dampening it slightly. He wiped her arm, staring at the deep crimson turn lighter into more of a pink as he wiped it around.
As Lily and Tulip talked, Cassidy zoned out. He stared at the blood as he cleaned, not feeling any difficulty with his self control. Breathing in deeper, he smelt it the most he'd ever willingly breathed when her blood was around. There was no need to hold his breath this time. As he inhaled again, he caught himself in the moment - as if he was searching for the impulse to arise, almost as if he was hoping for the awful temptation he had hated so badly to come back. It felt unnatural to be numb to it now, and for some reason, it bothered him more.
Lily looked from the wound up to Cassidy, pulling him out of his train of thought inside his head, "It's really deep." She huffed, unaware of the mental struggle he was going through, before looking back down at it as she watched him lift the cloth, the area around now clean as it began to pool out of the opening again. Cassidy pressed the cloth back against it immediately. She sighed, "I need stitches." He continued to keep pressure against it as looked down at her. She tilted her head, "I'll go to the hospital in a bit. Once Jesse comes back."
Tulip scrunched her brow, "I thought you were sketched out about usin' your ID for anything like that?" She asked, "Hence the weird, private doctor the other day?" Lily nodded, "Yea, I'm not about to give my name anywhere with Beneke likely on my case." She sighed, "Just need to find the right person." Tulip raised a brow, "You mean one willing to be paid off to do the services without the paperwork?" With a smile, Lily nodded as she closed her eyes, "Now you're getting it." Cassidy thought on it, "I'll come wit'ye. Could use a few bags o'blood anyway."
There was silence that hung between them. Leaning back in her chair again, Lily felt her arm pulsing as the blood kept pushing out against the damp cloth Cassidy pressed against her. In front of them, Tulip sat. An empty mickey of whiskey and a blown up first aid kit scattered on the table between them. Lily caught Tulip's eyes as she scrunched her brow narrowly, "Why'd you leave him there?" Tulip asked with a lump in her throat.
With her head shaking, she leaned forward as much as she could with Cassidy's grip around her arm towards Tulip, "I didn't choose to. He made me. Well," Lily rolled her eyes slightly, shrugging a shoulder as she slowly shifted her head towards Cassidy, "He made him make me."
"What do ya mean?" Tulip asked. With his voice low and showing obvious sorrow, Cassidy explained, "Jess used Genesis on me to drag her out of there." He kept his eyes fixed on the cloth that began remembering Jesse demanding him to get her out, leading to Cassidy unwillingly leap at her with more force than he would have ever intended. The image of Lily's face scrunched into a wince and the sound of the groan she made as her breath escaped her replayed in his memory, along with one crucial detail... Jesse's voice played in his head as he stared down at Lily's arm, 'Don't hurt her' Jesse had added.
That had to have been why he wasn't feeling any urge. "Huh." Cassidy said out loud involuntarily. "What?" Lily asked, looking up at him. "Huh?" He repeated as a question this time. With his eyebrows raised, he looked down at Lily who narrowed her brows up to him in confusion. Cassidy shook his head, "Nothin'."
"Jesse did that?" Tulip asked hurtfully. "Yep." Lily said, looking back towards Tulip, "I would've never left if he hadn't done that." Her voice was a little grave, causing Tulip to be a bit more concerned, "You think he's gonna-" Tulip's voice cut off.
"He wasn't listening to anything I said, either." Lily explained, "We tied Viktor up. Jesse stared at him a while, waiting for him to come back to consciousness, and finally, I convinced Jesse to leave him for a bit. Clear our heads. He didn't say a word to me, just walked straight up to the room we found you in. Grabbed a wedding photo of you and Viktor. And stared at it for about an hour in complete silence like a psychopath. Until Cassidy came. Then shit went sideways." She rubbed her forehead with her free hand.
Glancing at Lily up and down, Tulip suddenly felt old, a feeling she didn't have often. Seeing Lily all battered up the way she was, and Tulip looking to Lily for assurance - it made her feel like Lily wasn't the little sister figure she'd always been to her. Lily grabbed Tulip's shoulder, "He loves you more than anything in this world." She assured, swaying in exhaustion, "He'll make the right decision. I know he will." She said, thankful that when she said it out loud she sounded a lot more confident than she felt on the inside.
It hadn't been more than another hour before the front door opened. Lily, Cassidy and Tulip all sat at the kitchen table as they looked up simultaneously. Unable to hide her nerves, Tulip shot up from the kitchen table to her feet, while Lily lifted her heavy head from resting in her hands to see her brother walking in.
On the other side of the table from Lily sat Cassidy, his eyes glued to Jesse as well. Tulip took only two cautious steps towards Jesse, who before even acknowledging all of them, turned to the fridge, popping himself a beer - celebratory, no doubt.
"Jesse." Tulip finally found it in her to choke out with a hard bite to her tone, "What did you do to him?" She asked gravely, unable to refrain her eyes from welling up.
As he picked at the beer bottle label in his hand, Jesse kept his head away from them, "I took him down." He said flatly. Tulip unintentionally flinched at the news, and Cassidy's eyes flickered from Tulip's horrified stance to Lily who couldn't even bare to look at Cassidy as she lowered her head back into her hands. Her mind went blank - not knowing what to expect to go down in front of her at this moment, and wishing that if she couldn't see maybe it wouldn't be true.
"You what?" Tulip's hard front melted away in a fair instant, her voice cracking a bit as she asked what she really didn't want to know.
"I took him down." Jesse repeated, equally as unemotionally attached as he was the first time he'd said it, swigging from the beer bottle. There was a painful staleness to the air, and suddenly, Tulip gasped in for air as she had been holding her breath for some time now.
Suddenly, the double doors to the living room opened - and out stepped a young girl. "Allie." Tulip choked out sternly, "Go back into the living room."
It took all of her energy to lift her head, but Lily did - catching the concerned eyes of the young girl standing in the doorway of the living room before she spun around and slammed the living room doors behind her.
"Who's that?" Jesse asked. Tulip looked up at Jesse, her broken front turning to pure rage as she bared her teeth and hissed as she talked through them, "Viktor's daughter." Tulip thought of all things that would strike a nerve of his, but Jesse just nodded, as if he could care less.
Stiffening upright, Lily's heart sank as she clasped her hands together - her elbows on the table as she rested her face against her hands a moment while she looked first to Cassidy - a shameful and broken look on his face, before she moved her eyes up to Tulip facing Jesse.
Slowly, Lily stood to stand closer to Tulip.
"You son of a bitch." Tulip hissed brokenheartedly, Lily approaching her carefully against the wall as she reached a hand out to her shoulder. Jesse's eyes flickered to the girls first, looking at Cassidy briefly before he stared back at them, "What?" He asked, to which they scrunched their brows at, "Why's everyone's faces like that." Jesse asked. "I took him down." He said in a different tone,
Tulip pretty much choked on her breath. She closed her eyes and paused before talking slowly, leaning her head towards him, "Took him down how, Jesse?" She asked.
"I went back downstairs." Jesse waved his beer bottle as he explained nonchalantly, "Cut the rope. Took him down. How else do you want me to say it?" He shrugged a shoulder, walking closer towards the three of them.
Cassidy collapsed back into his chair with a sigh and a chuckle of relief. Suddenly, the heavy and tense density of the air lifted in the room.
Feeling the affects of emotional whiplash hit her like a truck - Tulip's brow furrowed, and she was unable to control the tears from welling up in her eyes, "What?" She barely whispered out.
"I'm sorry I lost it like that. I was just so angry. Wanted to get some justice out of it." Jesse explained as if it warranted his behavior. He drank from his beer bottle, approaching Tulip and Lily, reaching into his shirt pocket, "Settled for divorce papers." He said as he threw a stack of folded and rolled papers onto the kitchen table.
Feeling her body relax, Lily starred at the papers as she slid her feed back against the kitchen floor, her back hitting the wall not far behind her as she was able to rest her heavy weight against it. Tulip threw her arms around Jesse, the two of them weaving together as if they were the only people left on the planet.
Cassidy looked at Lily, who stared at her brother and Tulip as they embraced while she leaned against the wall, unable to stifle a sigh of relief at the sight. Although the worst of her had been wiped down, she was still very haggard and it seemed like every blink her eyes were getting closer to shutting for good. She did her very best to keep them as open as possible, knowing that every inch of pain and every dent on her was worth it for this moment.
Catching Cassidy's eyes quickly, Lily pushed up from the wall, walking back towards the hallway into her bedroom as she left her brother and Tulip in their moment. There was no delay on Cassidy trailing behind her, "Hey." He said quietly, "Y'think that little girl needs a ride home to 'er Da?" With a slow blink, Lily shook her head, "I don't know." She said flatly.
Looking at her up and down once, he took a quick breath, but instead of saying one of the many other things on his mind, he said something else, unable to expose her to any more mental strain for the time being, "I'm gonna go take 'er home quick." With a soft nod, Lily cleared her throat again, "Alright." She mumbled.
With a soft smile, Cassidy walked towards the bedroom door. "Cassidy-" She managed to round up the last of her energy. "Yea?" He asked, turning towards her as he held the bedroom door open. "Fuck you." She stated simply.
All of the mental and physical strain they'd all been through today was unnecessary - and in Lily's mind - it was all because he'd opened his mouth to Jesse.
His shoulder dropped as he let go of the door handle and turned to her completely. "You can be mad at me all y'want." He pointed his finger at her sternly and above his shade frames, he saw his brow narrow angrily, "But unlike you, I don't take lyin' n'keepin' secrets lightly." He jabbed.
She closed her eyes and found it in her to throw her head back slowly and chuckle mockingly at his words before he closed the door behind him.
With a heavy arm, she reached out and locked the bedroom door, taking a couple steps back with a deep breath. As she finally had a moment to herself, her ears rang, and she couldn't move. Lily just stood there, in the middle of the room with her eyes shut. Shuffling back after a few seconds, she found the bottom of the bed frame, hardly leaning back before her legs buckled and she collapsed backwards onto the springy and squeaky mattress, her legs hanging off the end of the bed as her feet hardly lifted off the ground.
With his blood boiling at her attitude, Cassidy stormed into the kitchen, where Tulip and Jesse still stood embracing one another, making Cassidy even more angry. How was it that this whole situation was their shitstorm of their relationship's problems, yet he was the one in the dog house?
"I'm takin' the girl back 'ome to 'er da." Cassidy claimed shortly, placing his hands on his hips as his eyes wandered anywhere but the spectacle of the two of them embracing.
With a dopey smile, Tulip nodded, wiping a tear from her cheek, "Thanks, Cass." She said genuinely. At her soft tone, Cassidy's eyes flickered to Tulip's. Immediately, he felt himself cool a bit at Tulip's praise, gazing straight into her thankful eyes.
This was what all of the mess was for - to see her safe and happy - and she was, so he should be as well.
He took a deep breath, drove Viktor's daughter home in silence all while in the meantime coming to peace with Lily's anger towards him - knowing that, especially in the condition Lily was in now, it was only a very short matter of time before she came begging him for his blood.
