Alright guys. Here's the deal. I am leaving the country for five months in 16 days. I am determined to finish this fanfic before then. That said, this chapter was written in one sitting. If there are any mistakes, it's because I wasn't patient enough to send this to a beta. (So if you do find them and they bug you THAT MUCH, feel free to PM or post a review and I'll think about fixing it.) Since we last crossed paths, I became an aunt. Scary thought, no? No longer am I restricted to just torturing my characters. Now I have an impressionable 5-day old that I can bend to my maniacal ways. Muahahah!
On that note, this chapter is rated PG-13 for some brief language.
One last thing. This was originally planned out as two chapters which were then smooshed into one because I was impatient and I feel it just flows better this way. So if you happen to catch any gaping plot holes, feel free to mention them in a review and, once again, I'll seriously think about fixing them...
Cassandra's Perspective
I woke up feeling refreshed the next day. I hadn't felt refreshed in a long while. I guess that's just the life you live when you're a teenager with a single dad...who's in the army, no less. So all in all, refreshed was nice. I hopped out of bed, pumped for school. (It's amazing what a little pep-talk from Cub could do.)
As I strode to school, whistling a jaunty tune, I thought over everything Alex and I had talked about the night before. It was as if a protective bubble had surrounded me. Nothing could touch me because Alex wouldn't let it. Let CPS think what they will! And I laughed out loud.
I settled into homeroom, ready to take on the day.
It hit me in chemistry. Of course Mr. Grizzle had been the one to spill the proverbial beans. He had been questioning me about my home life, sent people spying on me, only had half the story, and he totally knew that Alex was my acquaintance in some way. I sat in class pretending to take notes but in reality, scripting out what I was going to say when I confronted him.
"How dare you assume about my home life. I told you nothing was going on! I'm 16 years old. I can take care of myself. I've been doing it for years and I don't need a nosy old busybody looking over my shoulder. You don't even know me. You don't know my situation. You don't know jack. So just back off!"
I got so violent in my thoughts that I tore a hole through the paper in my binder. I silently growled and slammed the pen down on the ripped paper. Sam glanced at me from underneath his eyelashes. "Everything okay, Cassie?"
I whipped my head around and glared at him. I watched as he shrunk back from my gaze as if struck. My eyes narrowed as I shook my head lightly and picked up my pen again. I flipped the page over and kept on doodling viciously.
"And seriously, it's not like you even have a family. You wouldn't know how to treat a child if you had one! You don't know what uprooting a sixteen year old would do to that same sixteen year old...so why do you think it's your decision to make. You aren't God. You aren't...You have...argghh!"
The bell interrupted my frustrated thoughts. Saved by the bell, Grizzle? I glanced in his direction and saw him staring directly back at me. Oh, so that's the way you want to play it. Okay. I walked up to his desk and stood there are the other students packed up their backs and the classroom emptied behind me. Direct eye contact was made, neither of us willing to break it. As the silence fell behind me, I cocked my head to the side and raised my eyebrows at him. He gazed back stoically. Brave soul.
"I've heard interesting things going around my household..."
"Is that so?"
"Quite. Rumor has it, someone called Child Protection Services on my curious circumstances and has stirred up some trouble."
"That's most unfortunate for you. I hope everything works out for you, Cassie. I really do."
"Did you put in the call?"
"I'm not obligated to tell you either way..."
"Cut the crap, Grizzle. Did you or didn't you call CPS on my dad?" And I watched his face without blinking as he almost immediately responded with...
"I did not."
"Bullshit."
"Miss McMan. I don't care how upset you are. You will watch your language or you will get a detention."
"Oh, so now this is a teacher/student relationship. I'm sorry. I'm getting whiplash from how many times your personality changes. I'm still calling you on your bull."
"On what grounds?"
"Not only did your eyes dart to the side when you said it, but you also tried to distract me from my original question by calling me on foul language, of all things. So yes. I'm calling you out on your lie. Why did you feel the need to call Child Protection Services on my family?"
He paused for a second. I allowed the silence, letting it gather while he attempted to climb out of the hole he was in.
"I couldn't help but notice...within the past few weeks...the series of unfortunate events that have plagued your family."
By my silence, I let him know that wasn't good enough by simply raising an eyebrow.
"I also couldn't help but connect those events to the timely arrival of Alex Rider back at Brookland. It seems, once again, he is in the thick of things. From there, I could only assume that, as a trouble maker, he had dragged you into something foul...and for all I knew, your father was already a part of it. After all, he did get shot."
"Unfortunately, sir," I let the sarcasm hit him like a physical blow, "you have gathered facts and jumped to the completely wrong conclusion. You have endangered me, my dad, and even Alex Rider, who did nothing to wrong you in any way. All you've done if constantly and consistently wrong him when he has done nothing to deserve it."
"Now just wait one minute! I don't think that's fair..."
"You have no idea what he's done. You have no idea why he left school. He's been saving your life for as long as you've been a teacher. He's risked himself over and over again for...everyone! He's twelve times the person you will ever be. Who have you ever risked your life for? Have you ever had to risk your life?"
He didn't respond as he stared at me, mouth half parted in shock.
"I didn't think so."
With that, I threw my pack onto my shoulder and stomped out of the room.
Alex's Perspective
It was about 2:15 in the afternoon when the cellular rang. I glanced at it and quickly answered with a short, "Rider."
"Agent Rider, I have here that you have overdrawn on your account. If you could please come down to the bank, we would love to sit down with you and go over your accounts."
"What time?"
"Would 20 minutes be possible?"
"I'll be there."
I clicked the phone shut and looked at Snake lounging on the couch.
"I'm being called up..." and at that, Snake's cellular started ringing as well. We both looked at it. Slowly, he clicked on.
"McMan."
I couldn't hear what was going on at the other end of the line, but from the sink of Snake's shoulders I could tell it wasn't what he wanted to hear.
"Yes sir."
More mumbling.
"Yes sir. I can be there in five hours. ...Yes sir."
He clicked the phone shut and turned to look at me as he got off the couch. "Brecon Beacons wants me to give a gunshot wound seminar tonight. The person originally scheduled to give the lecture got shot. ...Irony wins out. So I'm the back up. But they don't know how long they're going to need me. Honestly, I don't see how many lectures I can give to the same people..."
We looked at each other.
"We better leave a note."
As Snake went to go grab his pack, I quickly penned out a note to Cassie. Since neither of us could write down details, I simply reminded her where to find the emergency credit card for food, knowing that she'd pick up on the hint that her dad might be gone for more than a few days.
As Snake came downstairs, I helped him whip around the house and fix everything for a possibly extended vacation. We took all the bullets out of the guns and locked them in the safe, double checked the windows were bolted, and rearranged the living room furniture so that the backs of the couches weren't up against the window.
With that, I bid my adieu's and jumped into my car to rush to the Royal and General.
Cassie's Perspective
As I walked up the front walkway of my house, I could immediately tell that there was no one home. The curtains had been shut, Cub's car wasn't out front, and I could see from the outline of our living room furniture that my dad had decided to feng shui.
Gritting my teeth with resignation, I pulled out my key and unlocked the front door.
Silence.
I walked into the kitchen and found the note on the table. Understanding the implied message, I grabbed a bag of frozen hamburger meat out of the freezer along with the spare credit card hidden in the ice tray. I set out the meat to defrost and settled into my normal, after-school routine. After all, this was nothing new. At this point, I was a seasoned pro of facing the unexpected. And this wasn't nearly as unexpected as you might think...
I dreaded Chemistry the next day. I had no idea how Grizzle was going to react to yesterdays confrontation. And now I was at my most vulnerable, if only because both dad and Cub were away on business. Gathering my nerve, I walked into the classroom and sat down at my assigned seat.
Not even 20 seconds trickled by when I heard, "Miss McMan, I'd love to speak with you after class."
I heard the general "ooooh"s from the crowd and even one "somebody's in trooouble." Rolling my eyes, I looked straight ahead and refused to acknowledge Grizzle's request. I can only assume he accepted my eye roll because he didn't bring it up again.
As the bell rang, I waited patiently for the other students to run to the door to their freedom on the other side.
I walked up to Grizzle's desk, my face a mask. "Yes sir?"
"Cassie, I have reviewed everything you said to me. I wanted to apologize for ignoring you. I asked you how your home life was and you said it was perfectly fine. That said, I will not apologize for acting on my suspicions. I wish for you to see and accept that I would have done this for any student...it's required that I report any suspicious activity. Imagine if you actually were being abused or living in a dangerous household. In that situation, I bet that you would have been ecstatic that I reported my suspicions. I will not apologize for that. But I am sorry about ignoring your thoughts on the matter."
I just stared at him. I didn't want to hear his apology. I wouldn't accept it. It had brought much unnecessary stress into my personal life. On the other side of my head I heard a discreet, but he does have a point... I crossed my arms over my chest. That was as much of an acceptance as he was going to get.
"Moving on. Since you're so adamant that he's not the bad guy in this situation and that I've been reading him wrong from the get-go, I'd love the opportunity to, once again, speak with Mr. Rider. Is there any way you can pass that message along to him? The phone number he called me from last time is no longer in service."
"Unfortunately, Mr. Grizzle, Alex is out of town and is, as such, unavailable to face your scrutiny. I do not know when he will be coming back."
"Very well. Will you please inform him when he returns that I wish to speak with him?"
"I surely will. Is that all, Mr. Grizzle?"
He nodded.
I nodded in response and headed out the door.
This was one message that I'd definitely be passing along.
And because you guys mentioned you wanted it. This scene wasn't originally in the plot. Initially, Ramona was to be dropped after only one chapter and her fate was to be implied. However, because you guys asked for it...here's a deleted scene...just for you.
Ramona was sitting in her car, once again scoping out the house for a last lead. After being run to the ground, being led in circles by anonymous tips, she was about to be fed up with this case. To her surprise, the passenger door of her car opened and a middle-aged white man who she had never met climbed in. He was wearing a top hat with a popped collar so that I couldn't make out any of his features. Then the shock set in. "What are you doing in my car? Get out!"
His head swiveled to look at the CPS agent. "Ramona Hawkins, I'm here to get you to drop your interest in the McMan case at any cost. So, what is the cost going to be?"
She stared at him in shock. "Excuse me?"
"Am I going to have to use force? Or is a very obvious threat such as 'if you don't drop this case, some questionable characters will be coming after you very shortly' work?"
She shook her head, attempting to clear out the cobwebs. Clearly she wasn't hearing this guy properly.
"Because we won't be afraid to come after you. And though I would pause to think about harming such a lady as yourself, many of my associates wouldn't stop at all. In fact, they take care of these things on a daily basis."
"You just want me to drop the McMan case?"
"Yes ma'am."
"...O...okay? You know nothing was going to come of it anyway...right?"
"But that's not important is it? What's important is that this never happened. This case...doesn't exist."
With that, the unnamed man got out of the car and walked back down the street. Heeding his advice, Ramona started up her car and headed back to work to close the case file.
Feel free to review. It's like food. Feed the hungry college student/author. Also! Only one more chapter to go. And an epilogue. So...1.5 chapters left.
Until we meet again.
~Moldy