Gone
A month had gone by and everyone was trying their best to get on with their respect lives as best they could. Punk was in touch with the detective he had spoken to and was kept up to date with their progress. Ideally, they wished it could have been cleared up by now but there was still things they were waiting on to make the final move.
Cassie hadn't heard from Daniel since she gave him her phone number. She figured he was taking time to think about it, and perhaps had decided he didn't want to make any steps to meeting his sons. She couldn't force him and she'd come to terms with it being his decision.
Jude was now seven months pregnant with a noticeable bump and a half painted nursery she was working on between teaching classes at the institute. Things were looking healthy and that was the important thing.
Thea and Dominic were doing their best to settle into their new home in Milwaukee. Even with things so up in the air, they knew they had to try and make it work. They were also in touch with the precinct close to them which made Thea feel safer than before. The only thing that was really getting her down in the dumps was the fact she hadn't saw any of her family in over a month. She believed it was the longest she'd gone without seeing them, and she was really struggling.
Punk and AJ were holding the fort as best they could, doing what they done best and making sure their daughters were all safe and sound on some level. They just wished things could be over quicker for them all.
"Have you heard from Jake today?" AJ asked, walking into the kitchen after getting home from work.
"No, he's not called." Punk shook his head, making dinner for them at the stove, "I did speak to Thea today, though. She said James lost a tooth." He chuckled.
"Oh." AJ laughed a little, "First tooth fairy visit then?" She smiled.
"Yeah, she left five bucks on his pillow." Punk scoffed.
"Five?" AJ asked, "Thea's not normally that generous." She said.
"That's exactly what I said." He said.
"How is she?" AJ sighed, taking her coat off.
"She sounds ok." Punk nodded, "She's just missing all of us. She's desperate to come back."
"I miss her." AJ sighed sadly. It was really affecting her mood as of late, not having seen her daughter in over a month. It was beginning to bother her.
"I told you why don't you try the face call thing?" Punk asked, "What's it called? Facetiming?"
"Phil, I want to give her a hug." AJ huffed sadly as Punk nodded.
"Yeah, I know. I do too." Punk said, "But she's safe, and the cops are working on it. I… trust them." He nodded.
"And what if this group… this gang know that we've gone to the cops? What if they're onto us?" AJ asked him.
"They won't." Punk shook his head, "They gave me a beating and thought that Thea would come out of hiding, so they could find her again. They're stuck, and they'll get what's coming."
"Yeah." AJ sighed, sitting down at the kitchen table, "Where's Cassie?" She wondered.
"She text earlier saying she was staying late again." Punk said as AJ folded her arms curiously.
"She's been staying late an awful lot lately." AJ said with a raised brow, "What is she up to?" She wondered.
"I think she's just had a lot of work to do." Punk shrugged as AJ shook her head.
"Every night?" AJ questioned, "Maybe she's got a boyfriend?" She wondered curiously as Punk raised a brow.
"Don't think so." Punk shook his head.
"Why? It's possible." AJ said.
"It's Cassie. She hates… that stuff." Punk shrugged.
"Maybe she's met someone, though." AJ said.
"Not another cop." Punk sighed to himself sadly, leaning his forehead against the fridge for a seconds before opening it up as AJ chuckled.
"I don't know, maybe she is just working late." AJ shrugged, "None of my business." She waved her hand, "Whatever your cooking smells nice." She nodded.
"Yeah? Well I've been slaving away all day like the good house wife I am." He teased as AJ smiled, getting up and walking over to him, hugging him from behind and kissing his arm as he lifted his arm and wrapped it around her, kissing her head.
"Hey someone dropped off as basket for you." Cassie shook her head with confusion, walking over to Theo's desk with a gift basket, sitting it down as Theo stood up, "The lady said you were very kind to her after her house was burgled." She turned to him.
"Little old ladies love me." Theo nodded as she smiled.
"Well clearly." Cassie nodded, "This is cute." She smiled, lifting out the small teddy bear in the basket.
"You can have the teddy bear if you like. But I'm keeping the chocolates." Theo said as Cassie nodded.
"Deal." Cassie nodded, sitting the teddy bear down at the desk.
"You wanna grab some tacos?" Theo asked her as Cassie looked down.
"Look, I know that you're just being friendly, and all these dinners and lunches are great because… I love food." She nodded as he chuckled a little.
"Yeah?" He waited.
"But… maybe we should just reign it in a little." Cassie nodded, "I'm still not looking for a relationship." She made clear.
"Neither am I." Theo said, "But the more you keep saying that, the more it sounds like you're trying to convince yourself, not me." He said.
"I'm not trying to convince myself." Cassie shook her head.
She had gotten close to Theo. They slept together almost every night. They worked together. She learned from him and he sometimes learned from her. He was her friend. A good friend. And she liked it that way. But as of late, she had been realising certain things changing. Like the increase of opening up they had been doing. The change in sex. The way she sometimes caught him just looking over at her with a smile. She felt like things were heading in a different direction suddenly and she didn't know if she wanted that.
"Sounds like you are." Theo nodded, "Don't worry, I'm not asking you out on a date. It's a couple tacos and then I'll screw you in the back of my car." He shrugged as Cassie laughed a little.
"You kidding? That sounds like a date to me." She joked as he smiled. He was having a hard time ignoring how he really felt about her, "Ok, fine. But you're paying." She said as he nodded. Her casual personality wasn't something he was used to. It was like having an amazing best friend, who he could also trust and have amazing sex with. It wasn't like anything he'd ever experienced before.
"Ok, let me go punch out and get my stuff." Theo nodded to her.
"Where am I gonna sit this basket? It's huge." Cassie asked.
"Just leave it there." Theo called, walking away to go punch out and get his jacket.
Cassie looked through the rest of the gift basket, smiling to herself as she picked the small teddy bear, turning around and watching as Theo was grabbing his jacket, turning back around and sighing to herself, sitting the teddy bear back down, about to move the basket over to the corner when she felt her phone ringing in her pocket.
She saw it was Jude calling her, answering and raising the phone to her ear, "Hey, fatty." Cassie smiled, pausing as she didn't hear anything on the other end, "Jude?" Cassie said, watching as Theo walked towards her.
"Ready to go?" He asked her.
"Wait…" Cassie shook her head with concern, "Jude? Are you there?" She asked into the phone. It was eerily quiet.
"Cassie?" Jude said on the end of the line.
"Yeah." Cassie said, "Jude, what's wrong?" She questioned worriedly as Theo looked on with concern.
"You need to come down to the docks." Jude said, almost robotically as Cassie looked at Theo who folded his arms.
"Why? Jude what's going on?" Cassie asked.
"You just need to come to the docks and… and come alone." Jude said.
"Jude… you're scaring me, what the hell-" She paused as the line went dead, the call disconnecting as she looked up at Theo.
"What?" Theo shook his head.
"I think my sister is in trouble." Cassie said, looking up at him, "Is Sean here?"
"Yeah, I just saw him in the back." Theo said, "Where is she?"
"The docks." Cassie said, "I'm gonna call my mom and dad. Meet me there." Cassie said, running away out of the station as Theo ran away to get Sean in the back.
Cassie drove to the docks, her hands shaking as she tried to grip the steering wheel. She was frightened by the tone in her sister's voice. Concerned as to why she would be at the docks.
She parked in the car park, getting out of the car and climbing down the ladders, hovering her hand over her gun in her back pocket.
"Jude!" Cassie called, noticing in the distance on the boardwalk, her sister with someone standing behind her, "Jude!" She called, moving quicker, placing her hand on her gun.
She couldn't see very clearly until she got closer to the boardwalk, noticing it was a man standing behind Jude, with a tattoo under his eye, and alarmingly, a gun in his hand.
"You never told me she was a cop." Austin grabbed Jude by the back of the neck as Jude stayed calm.
"You asked me to call my little sister. I called her." Jude said calmly, watching Cassie running down the boardwalk.
"Let her go!" Cassie raised her gun, her hands shaking as Austin chuckled.
"You look like you should be in kindergarten, sweetie." Austin smiled.
"Let my sister go." Cassie demanded, "Right now." She said. She never thought the first time she'd be dealing with this type of thing as a cop, she would be trying to protect her sister.
"Hey!" Sean yelled, appearing running down the docks with Theo whilst Cassie kept her eyes on Austin, "Let her go right now!" Sean said desperately, running down the boardwalk.
"Are you all fucking cops?" Austin spat, "Are you kidding me?" He hissed, raising the gun and pressing it against Jude's head as Jude shut her eyes fearfully.
"Hey!" Sean exclaimed, passing by Cassie.
"Come closer and I'll pull it." Austin warned him as Sean gulped, his hands sweating as he looked over at Jude.
"Just… let her go. She doesn't need to get hurt. No one needs to get hurt." Sean nodded.
"I told Thea this would happen." Austin said, "I told her. I said if she didn't give me what I wanted, bad things would happen. And what'd she do? She ran away? Split. Left you all to deal with her mess." He said, "Classic Thea."
"What do you want?" Sean asked, "Huh? What is it you want? You want to kill a pregnant woman? Is that what you set out to do tonight?" He asked.
"I set out to send a message." Austin nodded just as Punk and AJ appeared, coming down the steps.
"Oh my God." AJ gasped, "Phil." AJ panicked as she saw Jude in trouble. Punk immediately ran ahead.
"Yes, come join us. It's a big family gathering!" Austin yelled, "You came back to have more ribs broken?" He looked over at Punk.
"You let her go." Punk spat, "Right now."
"Then tell me where Thea is. Where can I find her?" Austin asked, "Don't think I won't pull this trigger." He warned as they all stood, feeling sick to their stomachs with nerves.
"Just put the gun down. This is only gonna end badly for you." Sean said as Jude opened her eyes back up. She saw her mother standing in the distance, her hands clasped over her mouth, shaking with fear. She saw Cassie standing with another cop she didn't know behind her. And she saw her boyfriend and father standing just a few footsteps away, looking the most worried she'd ever seen them look.
"You know I've heard all about this family." Austin nodded, waving his gun at them all, "Heard all about Phil Brooks. April Mendez." He said, "Popular for all the wrong reasons." He nodded, "Turns out your oldest daughter is scum just like you two were." He said, looking over at Punk, "Don't know much about these two though." He said, waving his gun back and forth from Jude and Cassie, "Remember Jackson?" He whispered to Jude who froze.
"Let her go!" Sean yelled.
"I remember Jackson!" Austin exclaimed, ignoring them, "He was a good guy." He nodded as Jude gulped, tears in her eyes ready to spill out, "Told me all about the fun night you and him had." He whispered in Jude's ear.
Jude felt like she couldn't breathe, like she was going to collapse, like there were invisible walls closing in on her right at this very moment.
"I'm gonna fucking kill you." Sean nodded.
"You know they said it was rape but… I mean… I just think she doesn't wanna admit she enjoyed it." He smirked, looking down at Jude in front of him.
Jude opened her eyes back up, noticing Cassie who was moving her head back in a gesture towards her. At first she couldn't really concentrate, but ten she realised what her sister was trying to do.
"Let her go, you bastard." Punk spat.
"I think everybody should just-" Austin couldn't finish his sentence as Jude snapped her head back as hard as she could which cracked off Austin's chin, stomping on his foot as he let go of her, giving her a second to escape as she ran ahead, almost falling over as Punk caught her.
"You're fucking dead." Sean spat, grabbing Austin as they began to wrestle around for the gun in Austin's hand.
"Go to your mom. Go." Punk nodded to Jude who ran down the boardwalk towards AJ, "Sean!" Punk watched wearily, nervous as he saw the gun being wrestled for between the two, punches and kicks being exchanged.
"Go stand back." Theo nudged Cassie.
"What? No." Cassie walked further towards Sean and Austin.
"Cassie, you can't… just go to your mom." Theo ordered, watching at the corner of his eye as he saw Austin get more possession of the gun, the trigger being pulled as a gunshot filled the air.
He grabbed Cassie, pulling her behind him as she fell over onto the ground, bumping her head as she rolled around onto her side, pausing as she saw Theo on the ground beside her.
"Theo." Cassie said, noticing he wasn't moving, "Theo." She crawled over to him, "Hey." She shook him a little, suddenly noticing the blood under him, "N-No…" She shook her head in disbelief, seeing his eyes opening and closing, "Theo." She shook him, trying to find the wound, heart beating rapidly. In that moment, nothing else around her even existed. She had blanked everyone out.
"Cassie." Theo managed to get out.
"Just… Just stay with me." Cassie shook her head, finding the wound which was unfortunately in the centre of his chest, where blood was uncontrollably spilling from.
"It's ok." He said in a faint voice which she could barely hear.
"No, it's fine just… just stay with me." Cassie nodded, keeping her hands heavily pressed on his chest, "Please don't…please." She begged hysterically.
She watched, in almost a sense of confusion as Theo's eyes shut over, this time not opening back up as she noticed his body going still.
"Theo." She cried, "No…" She shook her head, "No, please…" She began CPR on him as Punk stood behind her.
"Cassie." Punk placed his hand on her shoulder, "He's gone." He said as Cassie paused, looking on at Theo, turning her head as she saw Sean still in a battle with Austin.
She stumbled to her feet, taking her gun out from behind, tears running down her cheeks as she raised her gun, pulling the trigger directly at Austin who she shot down, watching him collapse onto the boardwalk as Sean stumbled back a little, looking over at Cassie.
She dropped her gun, slowly turning around and collapsing back down onto the ground beside Theo, sitting with her legs in front of her as she lifted him into her arms.
Sean looked over at Punk who shook his head, putting his hand up, making it clear to not go near Cassie. Punk looked over at Jude and AJ who were still in an embrace.
"I really liked you." Cassie whispered, leaning her head against Theo's as Punk looked over, a tear running down his cheek as Sean crouched down, placing his hands over his face whilst cop cars began to pull up at the docks.