Position to Fill
"Hey, sorry I'm late." Cassie said, making her way through the restaurant where she was meeting her sister and father for lunch, "Everything is a bit chaotic at the station right now." She explained, sitting down at the table beside Thea whilst Punk sat across.
"We'll forgive you." Thea nodded, "We could have just had lunch without you if you were too busy. I only invited you to be nice anyway." She said as Cassie nodded.
"Well thanks." Cassie scoffed as Thea nudged her and chuckled.
"How are things? At work?" Punk asked her.
"Oh, you know." Cassie sighed, "Difficult." She nodded.
"But Theo is back now, right?" Thea asked.
"Yeah. Yeah, I think he feels like he has to come back. After all, his whole job title was being second in charge." Cassie said, "He's there just now."
"I saw tons of flowers and stuff outside when I was passing yesterday." Punk nodded, "People clearly thought a lot of him."
"Yeah, well he was a good guy. And good at his job." Cassie said, "His funeral is next Friday, if you or mom are interested." She told her father.
"Yeah, one of us will be there." Punk promised as she smiled.
"Speaking of mom, how'd she not get an invite today?" She asked.
"She's working." Punk nodded, "I did ask her to see if she could get off for an hour or two but I think she's pretty busy, plus she took Mirren and Leela with her." He said. He normally met with the girls once a week for lunch. It had turned into a regular occurrence for them and it was nice to spend some time just with his daughters.
"Anyone heard from New York and the house break in?" Thea asked, taking a sip of her water.
"No, nothing." Cassie shook her head.
"Last I heard from her she was staying at Sean's apartment whilst they tried to get a breakthrough." Punk said.
"People break into houses all the time." Thea rolled her eyes, "I'm sure it's literally nothing."
"I mean, her art studio was destroyed." Cassie said, "That does feel a little personal from my point of view." She nodded.
"Yeah, I'd feel better if they found out who did it." Punk nodded firmly, "I've almost finished your reference by the way." He nodded to Cassie.
"Oh, good." Cassie smiled excitedly.
"Isn't it a little unethical to have dad write the reference?" Thea questioned, "I mean… he's obviously going to write nice things about you-"
"Maybe I didn't." Punk teased.
"No, but obviously you did." Thea rolled her eyes, "Shouldn't it have come from someone who can't be bias?" She asked her sister.
"It didn't specify. I think the whole purpose of it is just to get a sense of what kind of people we are." Cassie shrugged.
"Why didn't you ask me?" Thea wondered.
"Oh, let's not." Cassie sighed exhaustedly, "I'm having maid of honor flashbacks." She shook her head.
"Well I have two little sisters and not one of them asked me to be their maid of honor at their weddings." Thea turned to Punk, telling him as if he didn't already know.
"Jude had Kirsty and I opted for no one. It's not like you weren't chosen over someone else." Cassie shook her head.
"I really am glad we do this." Punk interrupted sarcastically as they both turned to him, looking ever so like their mother as he swallowed a lump of fear in his throat, "When do you need the reference by?"
"Oh, not for a while." Cassie nodded, "We've got a meeting with the agency we're going with on Wednesday. Hopefully it goes well." She said.
"I'm sure it will be fine." Punk said.
"Hey, how's the reading going?" Thea wiggled her eyebrows at him just as the waiter came over to take their orders. He wasn't sure why Thea had brought the letters up in front of Cassie, and was even more confused when he noticed Cassie hadn't bat an eyelid.
Once their orders were taken, he pretended Thea hadn't asked the question, fiddling with one of the napkins to distract himself as Thea chuckled.
"You just gonna ignore my question?" Thea laughed a little as Cassie smiled.
"I didn't know… I thought it was just you-"
"No, I know." Cassie nodded, "And Jude knows." She added.
"Did everyone know about these letters besides me?" He shook his head.
"No, I think we kept it between the three of us." Cassie turned to Thea who nodded in agreement, "We've never read any of them." She added.
"One of you could have told me. It's been what? Twenty years?" He scoffed.
"We thought you'd find them on your own." Thea shrugged.
"Why would you think that? I never go up to that damn attic." He shook his head.
"So… how is it going?" Thea asked, "How much shit is she talking about us?" She chuckled.
"Don't be ridiculous." Punk rolled his eyes.
"I would have talked shit about us back then." Cassie nodded, "So what's the most surprising thing you've read so far?" She asked.
"Well there's been a lot." Punk admitted. He'd barely been sleeping much. He'd been dedicating all his time to reading as many letters as he could. Some made him laugh, out loud. Some made him cry, also out loud. He felt like he was experiencing those eight years all over again, except this time he was here, with his children and wife, in their home, only they couldn't see or hear him. He could only stand and watch things unfold as he read the letters.
"Did you do anything like that? Write letters? Keep a diary?" Thea asked, "You know… whilst you were in prison?"
"No." Punk shook his head, "You don't put your darkest thoughts on paper in that place. Someone finds it and you're done for." He nodded to himself, "This morning I read your fifth birthday." He nodded to Cassie as Thea thought to herself, doing the math in her head.
"Oh, yeah. Not a good time." Thea calculated.
"What are you doing?" Jude asked, standing in her older sister's bedroom, watching her fiddling around with something on her bedside table.
"Nothing." Thea mumbled, creating a line carefully like it was the most important part of her day. To her, it was.
"Mom said I've to come get you. To sing happy birthday to Cassie." Eleven year old Jude nodded, watching as her sister lowered her face to the table, snorting the line she'd created from the little clear bag, twitching her eyes and wiggling her nose as she leaned back, "Thea." Jude said with confusion.
"Y-Yeah… yeah give me a minute." Thea nodded, collapsing on her back onto her mattress.
"Whatever." Jude rolled her eyes, leaving the bedroom and heading back downstairs where her family were in the living room with a few of Cassie's friends from school to celebrate her fifth birthday.
"Is she coming?" AJ asked, collecting some wrapping paper from the floor.
"I don't know." Jude shrugged, "I told her to come." She said as AJ nodded slowly, looking over at Cassie playing with her little friends.
"We can wait until she comes down." AJ nodded to Jude with a smile, stroking her cheek as she walked past her, heading out of the living room with the rubbish, pausing at the bottom of the stairs and looking up.
She didn't know for sure what was going on with her daughter, but she knew it wasn't good. Part of her did know exactly what was going on, she was just terrified to know for sure.
She carried on through to the kitchen where Dean was putting the candles on the birthday cake which was a very specific Pocahontas birthday cake picked out by Cassie herself.
"This cake looks good." Dean nodded.
"Cream and strawberry jelly." AJ smiled.
"You seem excited about that." Dean chuckled a little.
"Oh, I'm going to show this cake a good time tonight." AJ nodded as he chuckled, looking across at her as she stared back at him, "Just waiting on her." She whispered as Dean nodded.
"You want me to go get her?" Dean asked.
"No, I… I sent Jude already." AJ said, "She'll be down any minute." She nodded, turning around and opening one of the drawers to look for matches.
"AJ." Dean said.
"What?" AJ said calmly.
"You searched her room yet?" He asked as AJ stayed quiet, staring into space. She'd already had a similar conversation with Sam, about searching her daughter's room for drugs. Part of her couldn't really believe it. That there was a big possibility that what everyone was telling her, was actually true.
"No." AJ shook her head.
"You want me to-"
"No, I don't." AJ said angrily as Dean nodded, stepping back a little and leaning against the kitchen counter, "It's just weed. She's just high." AJ mumbled to herself. The process of learning her daughter was doing drugs was a difficult one. One she knew would stay with her for life. That hollow, empty, deathly feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"You know she's not just high." Dean said quietly, listening to the footsteps stumbling down the stairs, watching down the hallway as Thea made her way into the kitchen.
"I am going out!" Thea sang happily as Dean watched her whilst AJ kept her back to them.
"It's your sister's birthday." Dean looked at Thea.
"I saw her this morning." Thea shrugged.
"Yeah well we're about to sing happy birthday to her." Dean said.
"Well I'll… I'll see her later or something." Thea shrugged, looking over at her mother who had her back to them, "I mean… she'll… she'll hardly notice." Thea nodded to herself, turning back to her uncle.
"Where you going?" Dean questioned.
"Just out with some friends." Thea nodded. It was getting difficult to pretend she wasn't out of her face. It was exhausting actually, and the more she used, the less she began to care about pretending. It was only a matter of time before she was found out. She suspected she already was found out, but she was too far gone to care anymore.
"I want you to stay and sing happy birthday to your sister." AJ turned around eventually, "And spend the night with us." She nodded firmly as Thea scoffed, laughing a little before realising her mother was being serious.
"It's a fifth birthday party." Thea shook her head, "I'm not… no." Thea shook her head.
"I'm telling you, you are." AJ said, throwing the matches on the kitchen table beside the cake, "Light the cake." She told Thea, leaving the kitchen and heading back into the living room whilst Thea turned to her uncle.
"I know you're seventeen but… this is the part where I say, do as your told." Dean nodded, "For everyone's sake."
"No." Thea scoffed with anger, "No, I'm going out. I said I was going out-"
"Who with? All your little junkie friends?" Dean nodded as Thea looked up at him, "I know what you're doing. We all do. Believe me… it'll only get you so far-"
"Yeah you'd know all about it, wouldn't you?" Thea spat, "You-You think I have the problem? Me? What about the fact that I haven't seen you without a drink in your hand since dad left-"
"Don't start this shit with me." Dean warned.
"Or what?" Thea said, "You're not my dad. You… You don't get to tell me to do anything."
"Yeah well your dad would be embarrassed of you right now." Dean nodded, watching as her face fell a little. It wasn't until then where he realised she was still just a kid. A kid crying out for help which none of them really knew how to give just yet as they digested her behaviour, "Thea." He sighed a little, watching as she backed out of the kitchen, running down the hallway and out of the house as he ran his hands over his face.
"Where'd she go?" AJ walked into the kitchen moments later to get Cassie's birthday cake, hoping to convince Thea to help her bring it out.
"Out." Dean shook his head, grabbing the candles and sticking them on the cake.
"You need to tell me everything you know about him." Sean said, sitting down on a stool next to Jude in the kitchen at his apartment.
"Sean, I don't know anything about-"
"I mean, literally anything. Tell me what he ate for lunch. What he talked about at staff meetings. What kind of clothes did he wear." Sean said as she looked at him with concern, "We're talking a murderer here, Jude. I know it can become easy to be numb to this kind of stuff given what's came out of the woodwork in your family but-"
"Hey." Jude scoffed.
"Well am I wrong?" Sean rolled his eyes, getting his notepad and pen out.
"I didn't think he knew that I knew about them." Jude shook her head, "And even if I did… what does that even matter?"
"It means you know he's a potential suspect." Sean shook his head, "Don't act dumb with me, Jude. You're clued up. Look who your fucking dad is."
"Uh… he's not a murderer." Jude shook her head with confusion, "Why would he want to come kick up my art studio?"
"He obviously got mad that you weren't there." Sean shook his head.
"You think he was coming to murder me? Is that it?" Jude nodded as Sean looked at her.
"Why didn't you say something? Even if you didn't want to speak to me… you could have went to another cop." Sean said, "You could have been in danger. You could be-"
"I'm fine." Jude shook her head, "It's Lisa that's dead." She turned away from him with a loud sigh.
"And you feel guilty about that?" Sean assumed as she stayed quiet.
"She told me and I did nothing." Jude nodded eventually after a quiet moment, "I should have reported it sooner. She told me she tried telling him to go away but he kept harassing her, calling her, showing up wherever she was." She said, "And I didn't do anything. Why didn't I do anything?" She turned to him, looking for an answer as he ran his hand through his hair.
"You said she told you she wasn't in danger." He assured her, "So you took her at her word."
"It was still wrong. A student and a teacher." Jude said.
"Ok, so you didn't want to get involved in something like that. Which is a valid reason." He nodded.
"No it's not." Jude said, "That girl is dead. If I did something. Reported him. Spooked him into staying away from her… she might still be here." She nodded.
"Or she'd be dead just as quick and you could have gotten hurt." Sean said.
"What do you think he wants?" Jude asked, "From me?" She said.
"I don't know." Sean shook his head.
"He never really spoke much." She said as he turned to her, "In the staff room." She tapped his notepad as he nodded, picking his pen up and writing what she told him, everything she knew about Fred Wilson.
"Hey." Cassie smiled tiredly, walking into the kitchen later that night, kissing Theo on the cheek where he sat at the table, computer in front of him with his shirt unbuttoned at the top, "I know you're back at work but take it easy." She laughed a little, noticing how tired and exhausted he looked.
"How was lunch with your dad and sister?" Theo asked her.
"It was good." Cassie nodded, as brief as she always was, "My dad has almost finished the reference for us."
"Hopefully he's painted a good picture." Theo nodded.
"I brought home dessert." She announced, taking a white box out of her purse, opening it up and showing him the chocolate cupcake with a gold butterfly on top, "Almost too pretty to eat, huh?"
"I'll have my dessert later." He said, looking at the computer screen, "If you're still awake." He added as she chuckled to herself whilst taking the cupcake from the box, sitting it on a plate.
"Chase have a good day at school?" She asked, sitting down at the table across from him.
"From what I could tell." Theo nodded, "Kid is obsessed with soccer. You've started something alright." He said as she smiled.
"Why? Was he talking about practise?" She smiled.
"Yeah. Well, that and also playing soccer at recess with his friends." Theo nodded.
"Sweet." Cassie smiled, picking the gold butterfly from the cupcake, eating it one wing at a time, "I'm nervous about Wednesday." She admitted.
"Me too." He nodded, "But hey, there's… there's no reason we won't make a good impression. I think we're pretty decent people, don't you?"
"Yeah." She smiled, "Yeah, we are." She nodded to herself as he looked back at the computer, "It feels really awful saying this when his funeral hasn't even happened but… is there any suggestion on what happens… you know… who takes Jake's position at the station?" She asked him hesitantly.
"I'm standing in for the time being." Theo nodded, "But… it'll just be a role that needs filled eventually."
"But you'll put your name forward for it, won't you?" She wondered.
"A lot of people are already interested." Theo said.
"Theo, don't be modest. You have to go for it. You're in with a better chance than anyone. You were… You were Jake's guy." Cassie said.
"Mark is going for it." He told her as she looked across at him with confusion.
"W-What? What do you mean?" She shook her head.
"He's going for chief." Theo nodded, "Which means if I don't go for it… that motherfucker might end up being our boss." He said, "So yeah… yeah, I'm fucking going for it." He assured her as she felt her stomach sinking at the thought, at the nightmare situation that would be.
