The first time Cassidy had ever stayed home alone, she was six. Her mom was out doing god knows what, and her dad was with his flame of the week. She remembered the way she had jumped when she heard the doorbell, and the careful stealth - or however much stealth a six year old could manage – with which she used to check the door.

She remembered the childish terror she felt when she realized she didn't know who was at the door, or why that person was there at her house. She remembered how she hid under her bed hoping that the person would leave sooner or later.

She felt the same panicked fear now, sitting in Mrs. Petrie's car that the Irishmen had stolen, with two of them sitting on either side of her, and two in the front seats. It was such an odd experience, Mrs. Petrie had driven Cassidy and Abel on their first date in this car, shoot Abel had taught her how to drive in this car, and now she was being held at gunpoint in it.

They had been driving for twelve hours, she knew because the only thing she had to do was stare at the green illuminated clock on the dashboard, well that and worry, and since the latter wasn't that appealing, she was stuck staring at the time.

It was true, time moved slower when you were conscious of it.

She nearly screamed in both relief and frustration when they pulled into some run down gas station off the side of the road they were on, they weren't even in Connecticut anymore, they had crossed state lines a while ago, but she still had no way of knowing where they were going.

For all she knew they were about to shoot her and ditch her body at the gas station.

Or maybe they'd dump gas all over her and then set her on fire, she had seen that in a movie once, it could be an interesting way to go. Painful, but interesting nonetheless.

God, Cassidy needed to get out of this car, she was going to go insane if she spent any longer in there, she couldn't let herself think about Abel, and she couldn't let herself think about the Petrie's, and she couldn't think about why all this was happening, so instead she was envisioning multitude scenarios that resulted in her death.

Completely normal.

"Get out."

Cassidy resisted the urge to scream 'hallelujah' as one of the men got out of the car, allowing room for her to exit the car next, and nearly fall from the unfamiliarity of putting weight on her legs after sitting in the same position for the past twelve hours.

"If you try anything stupid, love, I'm going to put a bullet in your knee cap."

And because that didn't sound particularly pleasant, Cassidy nodded and allowed herself to be led inside the gas station, with one man walking in front of her, and the other walking behind her.

"You have five minutes, after that we come inside. If I have to come inside, I shoot you."

She sighed as she stared at herself in the mirror, throwing away the used napkins into a cracked white wastebasket, before leaning against the door, and running her hands through her hair, her nails scratching at her scalp.

God, she looked like crap. Her makeup – that she usually didn't even bother putting on – was starting to smear, and if she hadn't fixed it as best as she could with water and paper towels, she would have ended up resembling a raccoon. Her eyes were watery and exhausted, and there were small bags under her eyes starting to form that hadn't been there before.

Not to mention her knees were killing her after being bent for so long, and it didn't help that she was still wearing her nude heels.

Cassidy closed her eyes as warm tears filled her tears, she wouldn't let them fall, she refused to. She had put so much thought into this outfit. From the perfectly messy ponytail to the backless black halter dress with perfectly placed silver gemstones. Everything was so perfectly thought out.

She never felt the need to dress up for Abel, she suspected that had something to do with the fact that somehow she always ended up in Abel's clothes, but Jenna Monroe had her eyes on Abel, and Cassidy could just tell, she was planning on going in for the kill at Nick's party, and god she had never been the jealous type, but there was something about that girl that made her skin crawl, and caused this completely irrational need to prove to her that Abel was hers.

Which by the way, was another completely irrational type of possessiveness that Jenna Monroe seemed to bring out in her. She had never so much as thought of Abel's as hers, like he was some type of possession till Jenna Monroe decided she wanted him.

She and Nick's new girlfriend – who Cassidy was only betting would last a month – had meticulously went through store after store till they had found that dress. It was just classy enough not to be slutty. And just slutty enough to keep Abel's eyes on her.

Which again, wasn't her saying that she didn't trust her boyfriend, it was just her putting a contingency plan in place.

It was almost laughable how ridiculous and irrelevant all that seemed now. Not even twenty-four hours ago she had been worried about girls trying to make moves on her boyfriend, and what she would wear to a party, and what college she was going to, and if she would ever freaking pass an econ test.

And now?

Now she was in a dirty bathroom in a dirty gas station, while two men waited outside the door for her, ready to put a bullet in her knee.

It was such an odd concept how your entire future could literally seem so irrelevant when you had to focus so completely on the present, how things you had spent sleepless nights over were the things you laughed at, it was all just so freaking irrelevant.

Cassidy blinked a few times before deciding against tying her hair back up, and opening the door to the bathroom only to be greeted with a gun to her forehead.

"Whoa," She said holding her hands up in surrender, that could not have been five minutes, and unless peeing had suddenly become 'doing something stupid' then as far as she could tell, she hadn't provoked this.

"Hello Cassidy, love."

She mentally grew all the more cautious as the Priest – who had been travelling in a different car than her – appeared, she had quickly learned that nothing good happened while this man was around, nothing good to her anyway.

"I have your boyfriend on the phone here."

"Abel," Cassidy said quietly under her breath.

"Yes Abel," He confirmed, "Now he'd like to know you're okay, and you're going to tell him that, and nothing more."

Cassidy nodded slowly, at least the gun to her head made sense now, she had gotten the silent threat, loud and clear. It's not like she even knew where she was, there was nothing she could tell him. Though she wasn't sure she would tell him where she was even if she knew, she didn't know what these men were capable, and she wasn't that interested in having Abel near any of them.

She would take her death over his any day.

As it was he would be the only person who would miss her, there would be a whole boat full of people who would miss Abel if anything where to happen to him.

"Abel?" She asked as the phone was held in front of her mouth.

"Cassie," His voice was equal parts relieved and panicked – with a healthy dose of anger, "Are you alright? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," She said quickly as the sound of his voice washed over her like walking into a warm house after being outside in the winter, "And you?"

"I'm fine," He said back to her though she could tell that he was anything but that, "I'm going to get you back, everything's going to be okay, babe."

"I know," She repeated the same words she had said to him last night, knowing he would understand the double meaning behind them, "I know."

"Good."

The Priest held his hand out, his fingers making a motion to hand the phone back.

"I have to give the phone back, Abel."

"Don't be stupid, Cass," He warned her making her heart hurt at the familiar use of the word 'stupid' that had really became a term of endearment between the pair, she had recognized the double meaning behind the word 'stupid' just as he had recognized the double meaning behind the words 'I know.'

"I promise," Cassidy said quietly, "Hey Abel? I believe in you."

Cassidy wasn't sure why she had said those words, but as they led her back into the car, her legs protesting at being bent again, she realized she was glad she had. She believed in him, he was the only person in the entire world she believed in, the one person who had never let her down, and if she never got to talk to him again, he had to know that.

"Here."

She took the small paper cup – about the size of the plastic cups that came with medicine bottles – and looked down at the contents. It was clear, but considering how much was in it, and the way in which it had been handed to her, she figured it probably wasn't water.

"What is this?"

"Drugs."

Cassidy tucked her bottom lip into her mouth for a brief second, running her teeth over it, well they certainly didn't beat around the bush, "And what's it going to do to me?"

"Not kill you."

Cassidy was assuming that was code for the drugs won't kill you like we will if you don't take them. She bit her lip again, as she stared at it knowing eventually she was going to cave and down the contents of the cup, she just needed to find a little bit of courage somewhere in her spineless body.

Come on Cassidy, just down it like it's a shot. It was almost a helpful thought, if it wasn't for that fact that she had never had a shot in her life, Abel had this thing about her and drinking, not that she really cared, she wasn't all that interested in drinking, someone had to be the designated driver.

She closed her eyes for a brief second before pulling the cup to her mouth, but never getting a chance to drink the contents as the cool barrel of a gun was placed on her knee, and before she could so much as blink, the trigger was pulled, and an immeasurable amount of pain spread through her body, causing her to throw herself forward, and scream.