When Dan used to complain about Meg's outbursts years ago, Herbert had simply brushed them off as trivial female emotional matters and had scorned Dan for even buying into such nonsense.

Now that Herbert was dealing with Cassie's emotional outbursts, he wasn't only sorry he hadn't listened closer to Dan, but he most certainly feared for his life.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she screamed at the top of her lungs, shoving him as hard as she could.

This was definitely one of those days when he shouldn't have answered the door, he decided. He'd known that it was Cassie and Vlad, but really, since when had that ever been beneficial to him or his work in the past? He couldn't think of a single instance, and now he was pretty sure he was dead – Vlad sure as hell wouldn't help him and Cassie looked ready to kill as soon as she was done knocking him around the room. This had Herbert looking around for a viable weapon to defend himself with and unable to come up with anything.

"I was going to tell you!" he defended. "Just as soon as I…"

"No one gave you any permission to go through my things!" she said, grabbing him by his shirt and slamming him against the wall.

Tears were running down her face and slathering trails of her makeup on her cheeks. Most certainly not one of her attractive days, he thought. "When did you do it?" she demanded. "Did you just wait until I was asleep or did you…"

"It doesn't matter when I did it, but I'll have you know that your father's research on the nature of…!" he began, only find his head bashed uncomfortably against the wall.

"I never asked you to look at my father's notes!" said Cassie. "How long have you been in contact with him?"

Vlad stood there like a lump, probably waiting for Cassie to give the okay so he could carve Herbert up with the oversized set of meat cleavers he always seemed to have on hand. Herbert figured he should probably answer honestly, seeing as Cassie would kill him before anything else did. "…Two months," he choked out. "I've been in contact with your father for two months."

The shock at least allowed her drop him and back away. He massaged at the part of his neck she'd been pressing down on her with elbow and pushed his glasses up. "If it's any consolation, I've never met him in person and I've only spoken to him on a handful of occassions. All I know is that he's somewhere in New Mexico and that he lives alone…we've been comparing notes is all. Besides, I've seen you what? Once in that length of time?"

"What the hell does that have to do with anything?" Cassie asked, sobbing. "He's my father and you know I want to see him! Why didn't you just tell me?"

"And I was going to!" said Herbert. "Just as soon as I could…"

"What?" Cassie cut in. "Pick his brain and come up with some new way to bring people back from the dead? What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"You're being overemotion…" Herbert began.

"I've been sleeping with you for almost a year!" said Cassie, shoving him again. "Don't tell me I'm being overemotional! You don't have any fucking emotions of any kind, you're…God, I fucking hate you!"

Taking the pounding was a lot easier than he thought it'd be, seeing as crying at least weakened her somewhat, but it was the crying part that was surprisingly difficult. Cassie Hack wasn't a crier; it was part of what he found so respectable about her. She was so unlike all the Megs and Francescas of the world, and that made her at least interesting to have around, but seeing her like this now made him feel weird and there was no better word for it.

Vlad took a step forward, either to help Cassie kill him or simply comfort her, but he stopped when the foul language stopped and the sobbing started. Herbert didn't know exactly what to do when she leaned limply into him, but seeing as Vlad was right there, he knew he'd better not mess up.

He followed her as she slumped to the floor and knelt there, holding her as loosely as he could and even looked up at Vlad in hopes the big ape would just take her, but no such luck. Vlad knelt down and put a hand on her back, but that was about it. Herbert was on his own and he had a feeling Vlad wanted it that way.

Nothing to do but sit there and hold her until she came to her senses.

A/N: So yeah, I got my Hack/Slash #15 - #17 today and they're AWESOME. I loved the scenes with them together and thought it was sweet how he gave her the last re-agent syringe^_^. Nothing like this fic of course, but it just made me ship this pairing even harder. Oh dear…