AN: Barely four pages, I'm making progress! Thanks heaps to Chiquinta. She rocks, but yall already knew that didn't ya?

~

Chris ushered her children in the room then followed them. They had left Cassie at her own doorsteps several minutes ago. Chris thanked heaven she had been smart enough to take a three person room with two bathrooms. She and Sam both quickly ran into one so that Tom just had to wait until they were finished.

In a room not far from there things were less quiet however. Cassie walked in to find Michelle sitting on the bed in a silk nightshirt, leaving just about al of her legs bare. Cassie suppressed the urge to roll her eyes.

"Where's dad?" she just asked.

"Here." TC said, coming out of the bathroom, wearing a bathrobe.

"Why the hell were you spying on me?" Cassie shrieked. She had never been really angry with her father before but this she just could not handle.

"I wasn't, I was just making sure you were alright. And with that _thing_ you are wearing I guess I should be happy I did!" TC said, shocked by his daughter's sudden attitude.

"My outfit? What about hers?" Cassie pointed to Michelle "You don't have a problem with her dressing up as a hooker!" She said, going immediately for the low blows.

"Well, you are my daughter! You're only a child!" then like an after thought he added "And Michelle doesn't dress like a hooker."

"I am not a child anymore dad! I am sixteen, and I have a boyfriend. Just let me have some privacy for godssake!"

"You are too young, if you were older you would know a boyfriend isn't just someone you met a couple if days ago, it's someone you share something special with."

"And I don't have that with Tom?" She asked, mad that her father pretended to know everything concerning love.

"No. I don't want you anywhere near that boy ever again." He threatened, it wasn't that he didn't like the kid, it was the threat he carried with him. A double threat, he could take away TC's little girl, turning her into the woman she was too young to become and on top of that he could get her killed.

"You can't control that daddy." She said, suddenly calm.

"You won't see him after we leave this hotel anyway. What is to keep me from checking out right now?"

"No daddy, don't! I really really like him OK?" she said seemingly giving in, but in her head the radars were working overtime. Of course they would meet after this vacation, Chris visited Cory's grave, and indicated that it couldn't be more then an hours drive back to her place. They would see each other plenty. But for now, cooling her father off was more important. You catch more flies with honey.

"I know baby, but he'll only break your heart." Or get you killed.

"No he won't." she said with what she thought was enough conviction to make her father see reason.

"Look Cass, it's not that I don't trust your judgement it's that this particular boy is bad news. Take a boyfriend when we get home, take two! But not him, not here, alright?" Take a boyfriend? What world is he living in anyway?

"I like Tom, daddy, I really really like Tom, he's not like other boys." She could hardly believe she was having this conversation with her father, it just wasn't any of his business who she was dating!

"No Cassie. You will not see this boy!" He tried to finish the conversation but Cassie wouldn't let him.

"WHY NOT?!? You seem to like his mother well enough! Do you honestly think she would raise an awful kid? Once upon a time you married her, you thought her children would be your children. Is that it daddy? You're bothered by the fact that Tom is Chris's?"

"That is part of it. Look Cass, it's late, we're both tired, let's just pick this up tomorrow, when we have both calmed down." She knew what this was, tomorrow he would refuse to talk about it, burying the subject. The man was as stubborn as an ass.

"I will keep seeing Tom dad, and there is nothing you can do about it." She said, a little yet proud smile playing around her lips.

"No you will not." He said, his tone turning threatening.

"Yes, I will."

"You will not Cassandra!" He thundered. He never used that tone of voice with her, he was never this mad at her. Suddenly, to her own annoyance tears started stinging in her eyes. She quickly turned and left the room, slamming the door as hard as she could.

First she went into her own room where she cried for a bit, feeling immensely sorry for herself and hating her stubborn stupid father. When she was done she fixed herself up a bit, an idea had sprung to her mind.

~

Sam and Chris were already asleep in the king-sized bed, Tom however couldn't get to sleep. He kept tossing and turning, thinking about Cassie. On the one hand he liked her and it would be nice to date her and everything, yeah there was a time limit of about two weeks but wasn't it better to have loved and lost then to have never loved at all? But on the other hand, what if he couldn't say goodbye to her? He would endanger himself, Sam, mom, and most of all her! Basically everyone he cared for. Maybe he should just call it off right now, it was obvious she wasn't looking for a summer fling, she had actually told him that word for word back on the beach. And he just couldn't give her more.

A quiet knock on the door pulled him out of his thoughts. He noticed Chris and Sam hadn't moved so took it upon himself to open.

A quite bedraggled looking Cassie stood in front of him. Her eyes and face red, her lower lip still slightly trembling.

"Cass, are you alright?" He asked, concerned.

"Can I talk to you?" She asked, in stead of answering his question.

Tom looked back into his room; there was no way they could talk there without someone waking up.

"We can go to my room." Cassie suggested. Tom wondered if she had any idea of what she was insinuating.

"My mom will kill me if she finds out I snuck out." he explained. Cassie didn't ridicule him for it, she just smiled.

"Just for a little while, she won't even notice you have gone." Cassie pleaded. She really did look like she needed someone to talk to and he really did want her to like him.

"Alright." He smiled and flashed that dazzling smile of his.

~

Chris woke up at six. She was used to it and hadn't been able to break of that habit in the short while she had actually had vacation. Sam lay peacefully on the other side of the bed, no nightmares for her tonight. She also checked on Tom out of habit. When she noticed him not there she practically jumped out of her skin and ran to check the bathrooms. Both were empty. She grabbed the phone and called his cell-phone. It started ringing on his nightstand. Chris cursed and started looking through the room. He hadn't left a note, but there weren't any signs of breaking and entering or a struggle either.

Meanwhile Sam had woken up from all the bustle her mother caused.

"Mom? What's up? Where's Tom?" She asked, her eyes barely open.

"He's not here, that's what's up." Chris answered, worry and anger clearly evident in her voice. Sam cursed.

"Did you try his cell?"

Chris held it up for her to see. Sam cursed again.

"Have you checked Cassie? Maybe he's there, or she knows something." Sam suggested.

"If he is there I will personally castrate him with the bluntest knife I can find." Chris said, worried out of her mind.

~

Tom woke up feeling two brown eyes watching him intently. He realized he must've fallen asleep somewhere last night because the sun was already filtering through the curtains.

"Good morning." Cassie softly said. The before another thought could enter his mind she leaned forward and gently kissed him. Hormones took over from brain as he responded.

~

Both Sam and Chris were muttering curses as they walked to Cassie's room in their PJ's. At that moment no one would've doubted they were mother and daughter despite their dissimilar appearances. Chris didn't even bother knocking when she found the door wasn't locked.

There she saw something no mother wants to see her kid do.

"Tom!!!" She yelled, shocked, mad, angry and generally furious.

The boy and girl on the bed quickly pulled up the sheets over them and faced the door, wide eyed and scared.

"Pull on some clothes and come with me boy. Do you have any idea how worried I was? And you Cassie? I would've expected something better from you. Your father will hear of this."

"Hear of what?" TC, awoken and alarmed by all the screaming coming from his daughter's room had rushed over. Just in time to see Tom step out of the bed. TC cursed and ran for him, obviously intending to kick the boy's ass. Chris jumped between them.

"TC calm down!" she urged, having to physically push him back. "Sam take Tom to our room, if he even thinks about leaving kick him, hard." She ordered. Tom, looking a bit panicked dashed past TC, looked one more time at Cassie and then walked along with Sam. Michelle, standing in the doorway, stepped aside to let him pass, then turned back to watch what was going to be a very heated argument.

~

Note: Next up argument. What do you think, should I give Michelle a bigger (and meaner) part, give Cassie something else to bitch about? Or should I up the UST between Chris and TC during that very heated argument *wiggles eyebrows*