Hey guys! First off, thanks for the reviews as always!

Just so you know I published the first in my Kasey/Evan shorts/one-shots series. It's called Fosters, Nerds and Dummies and the first few chapters will be based around a Halloween short. Published the first chapter yesterday and will be posting the second (maybe final depending on if it's a 2 or 3-chapter) today or tomorrow! After I have finished Black Widow I will probably be writing more for that along with the original universe Fostering Funs (I probably won't be writing any more full stories for a long time). I know everyone is in a Black Widow head so it may be hard to think of any suggestions now, but if anyone does have any requests for shorts/one-shots in the Kasey/Evan universe then feel free to throw them my way!

Anyhow - who wants to see Kasey confront Michelle?

The cellar door opened and Carl entered with Michelle just behind. Kasey immediately stood up and folded her arms. Brandon simply looked up at them, defeated. Carl had cleaned up the blood from his face but there were still signs of his broken nose.

"We've found the money." He scowled. Kasey raised an eyebrow, her face flooded with fear.

"The closet in the back room?" She fluffed out to throw him off, calling his bluff much more successfully than he had called hers.

Carl squinted and smiled before coolly walking out the room.

Brandon looked at her confused but she silenced any impending comments with a look.

Michelle leaned on the wall and looked at her.

"Are you guarding now? The latest in the long list of tasks he's had you do?" Kasey glared at her.

Michelle bit her bottom lip.

"I never meant for this to happen. I never wanted you to be in danger." She replied. "And all that stuff with Evan - it was for his own safety. Carl was going to hurt him if I didn't get him out of the house."

"That's irrelevant." Kasey responded with a chill. "And got nothing to do with what I asked."

Brandon shuffled back slightly as he saw his mother unfold before his eyes.

Michelle licked her bottom lip.

"Kasey - stay out of it. You'll leave here at the end of the day and your life will return to normal. Just leave me to mine..."

"Your life? Rotting a jail cell because of him?!"

"I'm not here because of him."

"Then why are you here? Because you want to be? Because you get a kick out of being vindictive and manipulative? I don't buy it. You're here because you're scared."

Michelle shook, holding back tears, just before Carl stormed back into the room. He had clearly uncovered that Kasey had simply given him a diversion.

He threw himself towards Kasey and hauled her up against the wall as Brandon flew up and sprung on his back. He backed against the wall crushing Brandon against it as he dropped down and Carl swiped him with the back of his arm sending him to the floor. Kasey then flew at him but he pinned her against the wall by her throat.

"You come a step towards me and I'll strangle her." Carl pointed at Brandon as Kasey gripped his hands.

"Where. Is. The money?" He whispered as Michelle ran over to him. He elbowed her in the chest as she tried to pull his other arm. "You trying to make a fool of me?" His voice turned to a roar. It had the adverse effect. Anyone with Stef as a mother knew that a whisper was more terrifying than a yell. Kasey found her courage in his weakness. She could tell he was panicking.

"You can't kill me or him. Not even you're stupid enough for that. That would turn you from a petty criminal into one of the big boys and that territory is too alien to you."

He moved his face close to hers.

"You think you're so tough - but I can feel you shaking. You think you're Mommy's going to come and take me down? You're a little girl with a big mouth - if you were half as smart as you think you are you would use it to tell me where the money really is."

Kasey couldn't pretend she wasn't scared, but she'd be damned if she was going to let him win. She needed to keep stalling. He couldn't hurt them and their Mom would be there soon - she had to be. She gulped back before spitting in his face. She pulled her head back immediately. She told herself again that he couldn't hurt her seriously, he couldn't risk it. Or was it a step too far?

He wiped it with his other hand before pushing her harder back against the wall.

"Let me talk to Brandon Carl. Please." Michelle begged. "She's not going to tell you like that. I know her."

Carl looked between the two twins. He was running out of time but he knew she would push him to hurt her soon and call him out if he didn't. She was stalling him and he knew he wouldn't be able to control his temper. He couldn't hurt either kid, but maybe if they were separate she would break out of fear for her brother.

"Jimmy!" He shouted without taking his eyes off Kasey. "Hold him back." He ordered as another one of his sidekicks entered in. He immediately grabbed Brandon who didn't struggle - still nervous about what Carl may do to Kasey if provoked.

Carl grabbed Kasey harshly and shoved her into a side room of the cellar. He grabbed a stray bit of rope from behind some bottles and began to wrap it around Kasey as she struggled. "You wriggle too much, Missy." He scowled as he bound her hands and attached them to the pipe of the radiator. He signalled to Michelle with his head as she watched with concern.

"You make sure you find out where that money is fast." he whispered. "Or make it very clear to her that her brother will be in a lot of pain." He whispered loud enough for Kasey to hear.

"Brandon is much more likely to tell me..." She pleaded.

"Brandon is also much less likely to put up a fight if we need to persuade him through other means - and she knows that." He shuffled uncomfortably - he wouldn't admit that he didn't want to handle the bigger threat. He threw one more look at Kasey. She studied him. He was scared of her - it was the only explanation for him not wanting to handle her himself.

"If I were you I would be more worried about looking for your money. You're more likely to find it searching than getting it out of us...whatever means you'll use." She hinted as Carl glared at her before storming out. She saw Michelle's pocket buzz and knew it was her phone. The idiot was panicking and in doing so had left her with the weakest of them all.

The door closed. It was one on one.

"Why can't you just tell him where it is?"

"Why can't you understand that you can't win Michelle?" Kasey tugged at her arms angrily. She almost couldn't believe how deluded everyone in this bar was.

Michelle began to pace. "You have no idea what he's like Kasey - he will hurt Brandon...he will hurt both of you. You should be scared Kasey."

Kasey shook her head. She was not scared of her in the least but Michelle was confusing her more and more every minute. Her apparent care for their wellbeing silhouetted against her complete lack of responsibility.

"Why are you doing this? Why? How could you do that to him? Use him; abuse him. He cared about you Michelle! He stood up for you. He defended you!" Kasey's protectiveness was shining through as her voice began to raise.

"I don't have a choice!" Michelle yelled back. "You don't know what it's like!"

"You're right - I don't. I don't know what it's like. I can't imagine what it must be like to think so little of others that you can play with their lives like a damn chess game!"

Michelle's eyes prickled with tears.

"I never intended - I..." She wiped her eyes furiously. "You think you're so high and mighty! So above it all!" She sprung to the offensive knowing her defense was wearing thin. She was being distracted - this wasn't meant to be about her. She was meant to be finding out where the money was.

Kasey laughed. "What's wrong Michelle? Are you jealous? Are you jealous that I'm the only one here not a prisoner?"

"You look like the prisoner to me." She retorted.

"Right - right. You can play your little games all you like Michelle - but you're a puppet. You're as much of a puppet as Brandon was to you. I'm the only one here with any control and you know it - but you can have control too! You just have to cut your damn strings! He doesn't have to own you - he doesn't have to dictate..."

"What would you know about it!" She screamed. "What would you know about my life? About what it's like? What It feels like to be abandoned by your parents - you live in a dream world, Foster! You live in this filled in colouring book where everything is laid out for you. Endless love and acceptance - well that's not the world! For some of us it's dog eat dog and you have to know how to stick with your pack!" Michelle's hands shook and she steadied herself as Kasey shook her head. She couldn't believe how brainwashed and broken Michelle was.

"And Carl would defend you in your pack? So what exactly? He's alpha dog and he wouldn't leave you? What exactly do you think he's going to do with this money? Share it with you?"

"We're partners!"

"Don't make me laugh!" Kasey was in full flow as her rage got the better of her. "You don't think he'd abandon you in a second? I bet he's already threatened to - you said yourself you got rid of Evan because Carl threatened him - I bet he threatened you too. If you disobey him - what would happen to you? Is that how this partnership works?"

Michelle turned away from her and closed her eyes. Everything she was saying was true. Every time Carl had threatened to throw her out - every time he had hit her when things weren't going her way. She wiped an escaped tear away.

"Stop it."

"Why? You can't face the truth? You can screw with people's lives but you can't face your own?" Kasey's words became more and more venomous. She was trying to break her - she was employing the same technique that Lena had used on her, albeit with aggression at the root rather than love.

"I don't have to stay with him - I just need my share. It's still my only chance at a new life. What else can I do? I can't go back to a normal life. I need a new start..."

Kasey scoffed as Michelle was now unable to hide her tears. Kasey was almost crying herself, but out of rage and stress.

"So what was your big plan? Stow the money undetected, then you and Carl run off for your happy ever after you grab your part and go? You don't think he would hunt you down? That's not a new start Michelle - it's a new prison cell!"

"Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!" Michelle began to slap at Kasey's chest as Kasey pulled herself back and Michelle relented and collapsed onto the floor. She had broken her.

"Michelle - please. Get out while you can. If you give yourself up Carl will get the brunt. He has been using you - you're barely an adult. He's going down and dragging you down too. If you hand him over you may have the tiniest chance of a life - but not as long as you're tethered to him."

"I can't!" She blubbered. "I can't." It tugged at Kasey's heart. She hated her with every fibre but It was being displaced with a new emotion as she looked at her, beaten and broken on the floor.

"You know I'm not sure I even have any hate for you any more. I just pity you. I pity what it is he's driven you to. You're worth so much more than this. You just threw it all away." Michelle paused from her crying and let out a manic laugh, springing from the floor. She hated that word. It was the word Carl had used to pull her in. It was the word that Porter held her down with. Why did everyone judge her worth when they all knew she was worth so little.

"Worth! What am I worth? I'm my mother's daughter!" She shot back and Kasey vividly realised the root of her issues. Those words weren't Michelle's. She had met too many kids from the system to not recognise the signs. She had learned too much from Callie. She shook her head and bit her bottom lip.

"You've let other people define you Michelle. I can't pretend I've ever liked you - but at least it was you that I hated. This person - whoever the hell you have convinced yourself you are...it's a reflection - not a person." Michelle didn't take well to being psycho analysed. She flew at Kasey and mirrored Carl's methods as she grabbed her collar.

"Don't patronise me with your pity! Don't try and save me! I bet you won't be so damn smug and all-knowing when you hear Brandon screaming." She was desperate and she had reverted. Kasey's heart sank. She wasn't scared for Brandon - not yet. She was however scared for Michelle. She was too far gone. She was beyond any level of rationality that Kasey could give her. She was close however - if Michelle was to remain her enemy then she was close enough to use to her advantage.

"You're going to regret this you know. It's a big mistake to try and take on kids of a cop."

Michelle shook slightly but gripped Kasey tighter.

"Why?" Her voice cracked. "Are you going to feed me the same platitude I fobbed to Carl before - about her hitting us with the full force - about how she's going to track you down and hammer us down? Make us regret the day we ever crossed you?" Michelle scoffed, still giving away her fear and discomfort in her voice.

"No." Kasey replied coolly. "It's a mistake because cops teach their kids self defense."

Before Michelle could process the words Kasey headbutted Michelle firmly in the face and she fell against the opposite wall. "Shit!" Kasey yelped in pain obviously underestimating how hard that hit would be. She steadied her dizzy head after the impact and tried to kicked a dazed Michelle down again with her foot as she bit at the rope tied around her hands. It didn't take long for her to free herself, clearly Carl hadn't been a boy scout. Disorientated Michelle didn't put up much of a fight. She finally jumped up after her and Kasey chopped at her neck remembering the endless karate classes that Stef had made her attend as a child to take out her frustrations after her parents' divorce. Michelle fell to the floor and Kasey caught her laying her down more gently before rescuing her phone.

"You'll need back up - we're locked in Broncos cellar - we have their drug money and they want it back. Gonna try and get out. Don't use sirens or they'll bolt. I'm sorry." she quickly tapped out. This time she wasn't taking any chances and texted it straight to her Mom. As she clicked send she realised what it was she had just said and a new doubt was planted in her mind. There was no time for that now though, she had to get Brandon.

Final action chapter tomorrow guys...

Chapter 53 Preview: Kasey and Brandon make one last push, Stef arrives at the scene and Evan takes matters into his own hands against Stef's wishes

Anger flooded through Evan's veins as his stomach lurched at the thought. Carl was running and he was going to get away if he didn't get this message to Stef. He unbuckled his belt and began to run after her but out of the corner of his eye he saw the car and Carl running towards it.

He tried to fight the urge off but he couldn't help himself. The instinct was too strong.