Someone message me or something, so I know I'm not the only one still obsessing over this show!
Cassie quickly put on a pair of jeans and a plain black short sleeve v-neck, throwing a jean jacket over her shoulders and slipping on her chucks, she was out the door as fast as she could be. She only lived about three blocks away from the Firecracker Lounge so as she walked up to the final block, she caught sight of Tommy getting out of a girl's car. Sean stood awkwardly in front of the bar, ringing a comic book in his hands. Tommy met her eyes.
"I swear I had no idea," she told him. He only nodded. His attention went back to Sean.
"Where's Louie?" he asked him.
"Louie who?" Sean responded weakly.
"Stop lying and keep an eye on her," he told his brother as they walked past him and into the Firecracker. Joey was closing the register as they came in. "Where's Kevin?" Tommy asked Joey.
"I didn't take nothin'," Joey said quickly.
"How much did you steal?" Tommy just glared at him.
"Nothing, not a nickel," Joey again said quickly.
"Then get outta here," he was told.
"You got it, champ," Joey said, quickly walking past Tommy and Cassie, winking at her as he did so, but still getting out of there as fast as possible. That's when Kevin came up the steps, looked right at the both of them, and turned right back around.
"Hey! Kevin!" Tommy called out. They both quickly followed Kevin down the steps to the basement of the bar.
"Listen, Tommy," Kevin started, "me and Jimmy went down there with goodness in our hearts to work out a deal, but Louie starts threatening me. What was I supposed to do?"
"Kev, I offered to help you," Cassie said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Kevin, everybody knows who did this," Tommy told him. "You kidnap somebody, they're not supposed to know who you are!"
"Tommy, you think we're stupid?" Kevin asked him. "We wore masks." Cassie slowly brought her hand to her face to rub it in annoyance. Tommy beat her to the comment before she could say it.
"You went down there with goodness in your hearts but you wore masks?!" Tommy pushed past Kevin and opened the door, Cassie following him over, standing in between the two brothers. Inside, Louie was gagged, tied up, and had his eyes covered. His yelling was muffled, but he was clearly yelling for help of any kind to rescue him.
"Oh, boy," she sighed out. Tommy closed the door and glared at Kevin before running upstairs. Kevin looked at Cassie, pleadingly. She just shook her head and followed the older Donnelly brother, Kevin right behind her. When they got upstairs, Tommy was rummaging through a drawer.
"What are you doing?" Kevin asked him.
"I'm getting a knife and cuttin' him loose," Tommy answered. He tried walking past Kevin, but Kevin stopped him. Cassie stood behind Kevin.
"Tommy, I love you," Kevin told him, "but I'd rather fight you then Jimmy. He's banged out of his head." Tommy looked over Kevin's shoulder at Cassie.
"How bad do you think the fall out from this'll be?" he asked her. Kevin turned to look at her.
"I don't know," she answered, putting her hands in her back pockets. "I'd have to get a hold of Huey to find out." Tommy nodded. He looked back at Kevin.
"Where's Jimmy?" he asked him. Kevin told him he was down the street getting a beer and Tommy took off out the door. Kevin leaned back against the wall, rubbing a hand over his face. Cassie approached him, coming between the small space between the counter and the wall where Kevin stood.
"Tell me I'm a screw-up," Kevin said to her, putting his hands to his sides.
"Kev," she said softly.
"I shouldn't have placed those bets, this was all a dumb idea," he said, angry with himself. She placed a hand on his chest, gently pushing him. It was a way to ground him. He looked at her face and she stared back at him.
"Why didn't you let me help you?" she asked him.
"You shouldn't have to keep bailing me out, Cass," he answered. "It isn't fair to you." He wanted to grab her hand, lace his fingers between hers, but she removed it before he could even attempt it.
"Another question then," she began, "whose idea was it to kidnap Louie?"
"Jimmy's," he answered.
"Then he's the screw-up here, Kevin," she told him, with a slight smile. He chuckled, leaning forward slightly, he put a hand on the counter behind her. The space between them was already small but it slowly got smaller. Her breathing hitched.
"What does this have to do with the bodies, Joey?" the detective asked.
"A lot, considering the fact that Princess Farrell was an off-limits commodity, and Kevin was inching closer to breakin' that limit," Joey answered. "See, Kevin had a thing for her for a long time. And she felt the same, which is why she was always so willing to help him as much as she could. But, Kevin also knew, getting any kind of romantical involved with Dokey's daughter would have been a possible death sentence. Now, let me finish."
Kevin got closer to her, she could feel his breath on her face, her eyes went for his lips, but a loud noise from downstairs had him jump back and away from her. She took a deep breath, sharing a look with him.
"Louie," was all she said before they ran down the steps to the door open and Louie was gone.
"How the hell did he get out?" Kevin asked.
"He can't have gone far," Cassie said. "Get your brothers, I'll start lookin' for him." Kevin nodded and they quickly ran upstairs and out of the Firecracker in opposite directions.
But it was Tommy who found Louie, beat him, and dragged him back to the bar before leaving to go to Reilly's Diner, leaving Cassie with Kevin and Jimmy, who she was extremely pissed at.
Jimmy was able to dodge the first punch, but not the second, and even though Cassie's hands were small, they were still very strong.
"My nose!" he cried out.
"You're an idiot!" she yelled at him. She lunged at him again before Kevin grabbed at her. She turned, about to swing at him.
"Cass, calm down!" Kevin urged.
"I think I'm actually bleedin'," Jimmy said through a bloody smile. Cassie breathed heavily before lunging at Jimmy again.
"You ass, you're gonna get your brothers killed!" she yelled at him, but Kevin caught her around her waist, pulling her back. He turned away from Jimmy with her in his arms before setting her down and turning her to face him.
"Cass, you need to calm down," he urged her again, his hands gripping her shoulders hard. She looked up at him, Kevin was a good seven inches taller than her. She took a deep breath to steady herself.
"Kevin, this is gonna end bad," she said. "You heard Tommy, that's Sal Minetta's nephew!" He stared at her.
"Kevin," Jimmy began, "go watch Louie, make sure he doesn't try to take off again." Kevin turned to look at his brother, his hands still on Cassie's shoulders. This was a test, Jimmy was going to see if Kevin would follow through, they all knew that. "I'm gonna get myself cleaned up." But he waited there, to see if Kevin would do as he said. Kevin removed his hands from Cassie's shoulders, giving her an apologetic look before heading down the steps to sit with Louie. She closed her mouth angrily, glaring at Jimmy. She shook her head and walked out.
She took a deep breath before heading down the block, with no real destination, lost in her own thoughts. She heard tires screeching, and turned to see a car stopping at the bottom of the street before her and... Sean basically running into it, but the door was open and the people in the car were getting out, with bats.
"Sean," she whispered before setting off in a run towards the scene. "Sean!" she screamed out. With one hit of the bat, she watched as Sean went down, and they started to kick him. She barrelled, with as much force as she could, into the smaller of the two, only to discover that she landed right on top of Nicky Cottero. The girl who was in the car with Tommy earlier soon followed down the hill, attacking Vinnie from behind but he quickly threw her off of him and knocked her out. Nicky quickly flipped Cassie off of him, the back of her head cracking on the pavement, making her see bright lights. He landed on top of her, recognizing her instantly. He got off of her, shoving her back down when she attempted to get up, she was dizzy so she couldn't fight back. Vinnie and Nicky went back to kicking Sean as much as they could before getting back into their vehicle. The girl stirred and she crawled over to Sean, crying. Cassie turned over on her side.
"Sean," she said numbly. "Oh my God." She crawled over to him as well. She heard Kevin and Tommy coming before she even saw them.
"Sean! Seanie! Sean!" they were yelling. They landed quickly next to the girls and Sean.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" the girl was crying. Cassie looked at both Kevin and Tommy.
"Call an ambulance!" Tommy cried out.
"I tried to stop them," Cassie said. She hadn't realized she was crying.
"Your hair is caked in blood." Mama Donnelly was a no-nonsense kind of person. She knew that Cassie tried hard to save her son, and she held no ill will against that, but Cassie did.
"I'm fine," she said in a monotone, staring at the floor. Mama Donnelly shared a look with Kevin, silently urging her son to get up and make Cassie get taken care of.
"Cass," he said gently, leaning over from his chair, "it wouldn't hurt to get it checked out."
"I said I'm fine," she said in a biting tone, glaring at him. This is when Jenny intervened, standing up and holding her hand out for Cassie to take. She stared at it for a second, before giving in. Together, they walked down the hall to find a doctor to check Cassie out. Her wound was cleaned up, and she thankfully didn't need any stitches and didn't have a concussion. After the doctor was done, Jenny noticed that she had tears on her face.
"Cassie, you did what you could," Jenny told her. "He's still alive."
"I know," Cassie told her. "But I know I'm gonna hear it from my father about those... 'no good Donnelly boys' and that's what's gonna be the worst." She squeezed her eyes closed. Jenny came forward, hugging her friend, as Cassie sobbed into her shoulder.
After she composed herself, they headed back to the waiting room. Cassie stopped when she saw her Uncle Huey, and she signaled Jenny to continue on.
"Hey, kiddo," he said by way of greeting. He gave her a hug. "How you holding up?"
"I'm okay, Hue," she told him, smiling sadly. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, uh," he turned back to look down the hallway he just came down. "I came to, uh, see how Sean Donnelly was doing." She nodded, but wondered why her Uncle was lying to her. She was about to ask him that, but the elevator dinged and he smiled at her. "I'll talk to you later." She nodded again, not knowing that was going to be the last time she saw him alive.
First, Tommy had disappeared from the waiting room, then Kevin, and shortly afterward, Jenny walked out. Cassie decided to join them, wherever they were, and she found them at the elevator, Kevin and Tommy inside, Jenny holding the door open.
"You are not your brother," Jenny was telling Tommy. "Stay and eat your sandwich. Please."
"I'll be back for it," he told her, pushing the button to close the doors. Kevin made eye contact with Cassie, but nothing was said as the doors closed. Jenny smacked them, visibly upset. Cassie came over to her friend, gently tugging her into a hug, the way Jenny had done for her earlier. A few moments passed before they went back to the waiting room, trying to act like nothing was going on.
Hours later, the two middle Donnelly brothers finally walked back into the waiting room. Jenny and Cassie shared a relieved look. Tommy left almost immediately to go talk to Sean as Kevin sat down in between his mother and Cassie. Mama Donnelly looked down and saw the blood on the sleeve of Kevin's shirt. Cassie noticed it too, just like Jenny, but they ignored it as Mama Donnelly tucked the sleeve into Kevin's cardigan. Soon, Jenny got up and went down the hall, to see Tommy.
Cassie sat there for a moment, a wave of exhaustion washing over her, but that's when her phone went off. She fished it out of her back pocket, seeing that it was her father. She looked over, about to apologize for the noise, when she saw the look on Kevin's face. He stared at her phone for a second before looking up at her with an apologetic look. Confused, she stood up, walking across the waiting room, and answered her phone.
"Hey, daddy," she greeted. "What's up?"
"Huey was found dead," he told her. Her breath hitched, her stomach dropped, and she felt like she could feel the Earth moving. She quickly turned back to Kevin and his mother. He was still looking at her with those sad, apologetic eyes.
"How?" she asked her father, turning away from Kevin's gaze. Fresh tears threatened to spill out.
"He was shot dead," her father told her. "We don't know who by." She bit her lip, crying silently. Kevin got out of his mother's grip, walking over to where Cassie stood. She could feel him hovering behind her. "Cassie?" her father's voice came through.
"I'm still here, dad," she said. "Just... processing."
"It's okay, baby," he told her gently. "I won't let this go." A slight sob came out.
"See, she knew exactly who killed her Uncle," Joey Ice Cream said. "But she couldn't risk her father finding out and killing more people she cared about."
"Cass," Kevin's voice came from behind her as she hung up her phone. She turned to look at him but found she could barely recognize him.
"I have to go," she said, walking past Kevin to grab her jacket.
"Cass, wait," Kevin tried, about to grab her wrist, but a doctor came in, saying that she needed to talk to the Donnelly's about Sean. Cassie took that as her chance to leave and did.