Thirteen years and some prison-related chaos later, Herbert was somewhat surprised to learn that Cassie Hack was still an easy woman to find. All he'd had to do was follow the trail of bodies and sure enough, he found her somewhere outside of Illinois.

He hadn't known what to expect when he'd come knocking on her hotel room door and was slightly apprehensive about the fact that Vlad was the one to answer it. For someone he'd always pegged as dumb, Herbert could see by the look on Vlad's face that the big ape knew what was going on and didn't appreciate Herbert's presence one little bit.

But instead of slamming the door, Vlad quietly grunted and stepped aside, allowing Herbert in. "Huurrh…Cassie…you have visitor, yes?" Vlad called into the small bathroom, where steam was pouring out from under the door.

The string of curses that followed from behind the bathroom door made Herbert smile just a little, even though he wouldn't admit it. Ever.

The bathroom door slammed against the wall as it opened, and Cassie stumbled out in the only way she could, practically frothing at the mouth and precariously wrapped in a towel. "Tell them to wait a minute for crissakes!" she ranted, absently toweling her hair dry. "If it's that whiner that survived, explain to her that if I don't finish my shower, I get cranky and if I get cranky, I get…"

"Hello, Cassie," said Herbert, hoping her bad temper wasn't going to have a target to focus on.

For a woman who'd spent most of her life fighting, he had to admit she looked good. There were more scars along her arms and legs than he remembered, but for the most part she looked the same – sans the black makeup, which he wasn't altogether pleased to see. He didn't know why, so he attributed it to the slight obsessive-compulsive disorder everyone wanted to diagnose him with.

Her eyes were locked with his and the glare was a good sign; this probably meant he wasn't going to get killed.

Behind him he heard the doorknob turn and Vlad grunt as he pulled his gas mask on. Cassie looked past Herbert with a look of slight terror. "Where are you going?" she asked. "You don't have to go, you can just…"

"Vlad get ice, yes? Want anything from the vending machine?"

"Nah, I'm good," said Cassie. "West?"

Herbert quietly shook his head, wondering what all this really meant. He was mainly just hoping Vlad didn't return with meat cleavers in hand the second the door slammed behind him.

Cassie sighed and walked past him, and sat down on the edge of one of the beds, adjusting her towel and flicking wet hair out of her eyes. She slapped the space next to her. "Sit," she ordered.

Normally he would have picked a fight with her over her ordering him around like a dog, but now it seemed rather pointless and he was too goddamn tired. He eased himself down next to her and they sat there for a few minutes, neither looking at each other and staring at the worn old carpet of the room.

"So," Cassie said finally. "…Wanna tell me why you're here?"

"Is it that important?" he asked.

"I dunno. Did people die?" she asked dryly.

"Prison riot," he replied promptly.

"Oh," said Cassie. "Did you cause it?"

"No," said Herbert. "…Perhaps. I'm uncertain of the exact cause of it, but the re-agent was definitely involved. I simply took advantage of the situation."

"Now that part doesn't surprise me," said Cassie. "How'd you do it?"

He reached into his shirt pocket and produced Howard's security badge, handing it over to her. "Hmm…and this Howard Phillips…you didn't kill him, did you?" she asked, turning it over in her hands. " 'Cause if you did, then you know I have to…"

"The only person I killed was the warden and for good reason, since he sexually assaulted and murdered a female reporter whose body they'd brought into me only moments before," said Herbert. "You would have done the same thing."

"Oh," she replied again, handing the badge back to him. "Well that's understandable. What'd you use? Shanking knife?"

"No, microscope," said Herbert. "Mostly, anyway. I did have to electrocute him twice, however. That was a bit difficult."

"I'd guess so," said Cassie. "But what about Howard?"

"He was my assistant for a while, but his…extracurricular interests got the best of him and probably drove him insane. I didn't stick around long enough to find out."

"Assistant?" Cassie asked. "As in Dan 2.0?"

"Please," said Herbert, wincing. "Don't even mention that name."

Cassie sighed, nodding. "Right," she said. "…I met up with him shortly after your trial, you know."

"Why?" Herbert asked.

Cassie rolled her eyes, looking at him as if he were insane. "To find out why he fucked you over the way he did!" she said. "Of course! …Anyway, he wouldn't tell me anything…he just said that you were really sick and needed some help. That you needed that place to protect you from yourself."

"Not surprising," said Herbert.

Cassie nodded in agreement. "I kicked him in the balls for you," she said.

"You did?"

"Yeah," said Cassie. "Figured it was the least I could do. Plus, I never really paid him back for walking in on us that one time. Vlad thought it was hilarious."

He nodded as the silence returned and it made them both squirm. Herbert because he couldn't remember at the moment why he'd gone to the trouble of finding her in the first place (especially after the whole Howard and Laura debacle) and Cassie because she hadn't expected to see him ever again.

"…Kinda missed you," Cassie said quietly.

"Mm,"

"Now that I didn't miss," she said flatly, looking at him slyly. "Getting that for a reply is liable to piss anybody off. If I were a prison guard, I'd have thrown you in the hole already."

"It's a bit late for that," said Herbert. "And as it turns out, solitary confinement isn't nearly as dreadful as they lead you to believe. I did some of my best work in there."

Cassie burst out laughing, yet he failed to see the humor in it since solitary had really been the least of his problems during his stay. And here he'd thought that perhaps she'd matured a little over time.

"So two massacres and a prison riot," she said finally, putting an arm around his shoulders and smiling. "Looking good so far."

"As opposed to all of the people you've gotten killed?" he asked.

"Well you got me there," said Cassie, touching her forehead to his shoulder affectionately. "But my problem is that I can't ever kill the slashers fast enough. Your problems are still too convoluted to pinpoint."

"I beg to differ," said Herbert.

She rolled her eyes and stood up, making sure her towel didn't fall off in the process and leaning down to press a kiss to his forehead. "You can stay here tonight," she said, moving back into the bathroom. "I'm gonna go get some clothes on, okay?"

"That would be greatly appreciated," Herbert called after her dryly.

"Pfft," she said. "You lie."

A/N: I have a question. Should there be some more filth next time around? I'm almost done with these, so I figured before the blood, guts, and tempers come back out, maybe, but I dunno.