InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "donald trump has tiny hands"

Hannah Ryan | Sam Winchester (lostmyshoe) wrote in thereincarnates,
@ 2011-06-20 13:53:00

Entry tags:

benjamin macmahon, cassie macmahon

WHO: The MacMahons
WHEN: Monday afternoon
WHERE: Ben's apartment
WHAT: Cassie just finished Mockingjay, and she's a little pissed at her brother for keeping it a secret.
WARNINGS: Language? Allusions to badness and death? Mentions of sexual abuse. Oh. And spoilers for The Hunger Games. Big ones.

It shouldn't have taken her as long as it had to get through The Hunger Games and its sequels. Cassie was an avid reader, always had been. Had she been reading the series in her free time at work just to read the series, it would have been finished in a couple of days. It wasn't exactly a hard read--intense, even heavy at times, but not hard. The problem really lay in the content of the ages, specifically in the character of Finnick. It was always different when you personally knew the characters in the pages, or on the screen. And Finnick? Finnick was her brother, and she just had to read about him dying.

Her first instinct was to chuck the book across the room, but as she was at work that wasn't exactly a viable possibility. Instead she had to keep her cool for the rest of her shift, and from there it was the MTN, and then her brother's apartment. The travel was a lot more of a blur than it usually was to the point that she couldn't exactly remember walking from the MTN to Ben's door, but that was a moot point. What was important was that she was there, and she wasn't going to stop knocking until he opened up the fucking door.

And when he did? He wasn't greeted by the shining face of his smiling baby sister. Instead, Cassie met his appearance with an angry glare, and instantly chucked Mockingjay as hard as she could at him. "You should've fucking told me!" She spat, shoving past him into the apartment so that he couldn't close the door on her. Once a safe distance from the entrance she whirled around to jut an accusatory finger in his direction. "Ben, that's not shit you deal with alone! Sex slave?! You fucking die!"

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withsecrets
2011-06-21 12:01 am UTC (link)

It was Ben's day off and so far it had been going great. He'd gotten up early to go swimming at the beach until it had become to overrun by tourists and surfers for his taste, at which point he'd wandered around town and ate some lunch before finding a more secluded section of beach and diving back into the ocean for a little longer. He'd only barely gotten back to his apartment and changed into some clean clothes when he heard someone pounding on the door. His muscles tensed and he grabbed his trident from his room. He didn't relax until he looked through the peep hole in the front door and recognized his sister's features. Quickly he leaned the trident against a wall and opened up the door with a broad grin.

"Hey Ca-WHOA!" Ben barely had enough time to duck and avoid the flying book. Before he had a chance to react Cassie was shoving her way inside his home and screaming words that made his blood run cold. For a terrible, horrifying moment, Ben thought that Cassie knew. That she'd found out about what had happened to him when he first moved to California. Then the rest of her tirade sank in, and he realized she was referring to Finnick, not him. His secret was still safe.

Of course, that didn't mean he was okay with her even knowing about Finnick's past - quite the contrary. Relief quickly morphed back into fear that was also laced with anger. He scooped the familiar looking book off the floor and glanced back and forth between it and his sister. "You read it." His voice was quiet and deadly. "You read my source. Why the hell would you do that, Cassie?! What happened to Finnick is not your business. I've got this under control." Like hell he did, but better to lie and tell her that he did then admit the truth.

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lostmyshoe
2011-06-22 12:49 am UTC (link)

Deep down, very deep down, Cassie knew she shouldn't be mad at Ben. In fact, it was downright hypocritical that she was angry with him over trying to keep his source a secret. She had tried to do the very same thing, and would have kept doing it if he hadn't been so goddamn smart about figuring things out about her life. It was a MacMahon trait to the core; they liked to deal with their problems and avoid help even if it would keep them alive. Or, at least, it was that way for the younger two, who seemed to have a lot more in common than they realized when they were actually at home being a family rather than being on the run from their own heads.

"No shit I read it!" She shouted, and without thinking pushed forward to shove him as hard as she could. It wasn't like she was going to be able to move Ben very far. Her brother was a proverbial wall and she was...not. Sometimes it was hilarious to think that they'd come from the same parents, and other times it made complete sense. Their personalities were incredibly similar, but Cassie's looks took after her mother. Big eyes, short, very feminine. Ben, on the other hand, was as tall as their dad, and muscular as all hell.

No, there was no way in hell she'd win in a fight with her brother.

"It's my business Ben because he's in your fucking head, and you're my brother! Does that slip your dense mind all the time or something? His shit is your shit, and your shit is mine. Fucking deal with it and stop keeping secrets!"

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withsecrets
2011-06-22 01:37 am UTC (link)

A part of Ben was well aware that there was no way he could have kept Finnick's life a secret from Cassie forever, but he had desperately wanted to. Even needed to. Keeping up pretenses and pretending that things were okay was half of what kept Ben from going completely over the edge. If he couldn't even keep up the charade with his sister, he wasn't sure he could keep doing it. Like Finnick had once said - it took ten times as long to put yourself together as it did to fall apart. And Ben's unraveling had been a long time coming and a very lengthy process.

Despite Cassie's best efforts, Ben barely even stumbled after she shoved him. He glared down at her, straightening up a little to give himself some extra and utterly unnecessary height. "Excuse me? Last I checked, you weren't letting me in on what Sam's shit was. So if Sam's shit, which is your shit, isn't allowed to be my shit, then no way in hell am I letting Finnick's shit become your shit. Also last I checked, you are just as hell bent on keeping your precious secrets as I am. So, uh, no, I'm not going to stop. This isn't some one way street." He chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment, still glaring at her. Then he held up the book and half-shoved it in her face.

"What happened to Finnick? I never, ever wanted you to have to know any of it. The stuff that's happened isn't exactly something you tell your little sister. 'By the way, Cassie, there's something I didn't mention on the boards! In my past life I was sold around as a sex slave to the highest bidder night after night and year after year after being forced to murder children for entertainment for the masses at the age of fourteen! Which is, consequently, when Finnick showed up in my head! Man wasn't childhood a blast! So how was your day?!'" He threw the book on the ground with a resounding crack as it hit the wood floor. He wrenched the front door back open and gestured at it. "I can't do this right now, if ever. Get out."

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lostmyshoe
2011-06-22 02:12 am UTC (link)

If Ben thought a little bit of anger and an open door was going to get Cassie to leave, he obviously didn't know her very well. It was logical that he wouldn't; while some things hadn't changed after six years, some things most certainly had, the most obvious being that Cassie was no longer a little girl. Not a full-grown woman by any means--nineteen was still incredibly young, even when she was an old nineteen with so much on her plate--but still a lot more grown than the young teen he had left behind. And with that age had come the tendency to refuse to budge, even when sometimes it was better to.

Whether or not this was a time she should have caved was left to be interpreted by those involved. Regardless, she stood in silence for a minute, her large eyes glaring holes in his skull as her fists clenched. Instead of just letting her in on his shit, he was kicking her out. Her body reacted before she really throught it out; with one quick motion, her arm tugged back and slammed her knuckles into Ben's chin. In the movies it always looked macho and kick-ass. Hell, Sam and Dean did it regularly on their show when they were punching out demons. Cassie, however, grabbed her own hand immediately afterwards and hissed in pain.

Apparently? Punching somebody's jaw hurt you just as much as it hurt them sometimes.

"Mother fucker!" She yelled, pressing her knuckled against her stomach and doubling over as her hand throbbed. It wasn't her smartest or proudest moment, and in hindsight shouldn't have happened; she had, once again, let her anger get the best of her. Even if Ben wasn't her brother, punching a guy that size? Not. Smart. And now she had the bruised hand to prove it.

"I'm not leaving," She grumbled. She wasn't going to step out that door, and to accentuate that she reached over and slammed it shut with her non-injured hand. "Finnick's shit is different, Ben. You're alone. You don't have other people from your source like I do. I can help you. Fuck, Ben. I'm a hunter. My whole goddamn life is like being in that arena!"

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withsecrets
2011-06-23 05:08 am UTC (link)

Ben met Cassie's gaze glare for glare, his grip tightening on the handle of the door so that his knuckles turned white. Then his head was snapped to the side and he immediately put his hand to his jaw. "Ow! What the hell?!" He hadn't kidded himself into thinking she'd be all that pleased with him for kicking her out, but he never thought she'd punch him in the face. So much for his sweet baby sister. He flexed his jaw, wincing a little as he heard it crack a bit. Fuck. His sister could pack a punch, even if she apparently couldn't take giving it so well.

He continued to glare while he rubbed his jaw, though he made no move to stop her from shutting the door. "It's not. Different." Every word was practically ground out. "And I'm not alone. I have Hunter and Inez - they're Peeta and Katniss. And no, you can't help me, and no, your life is not like being in the arena. And I swear it better fucking stay that way."

In Ben's mind, there was a massive difference between hunters and tributes. Neither life was anywhere near easy, and Ben hated what happened to Cassie because of her source. But the thing was, Sam hunted monsters and was hurt by monsters. Things that were cold and cruel and inhuman because they just weren't human at all. Finnick had hunted and killed children, and was hunted by children, and in the process became his own kind of monster. In Finnick's world it wasn't about doing the right thing - it was about appeasing the Capitol masses so that he and his loved ones could survive. And for all their surgeries and their cruelty, the people in the Capitol were just people. People who cheered for murder. People who paid to have children in their beds at night. People who weren't really people anymore either because they'd never been taught how.

"So stay as long as you want. I don't care! But I'm not talking about what's happened to Finnick or me or anything. Because I'm handling it, and like hell you need more shit on your plate anyway. I'm your big brother, and it's my job to protect you, not the other way around." His eyes went a little wide as he suddenly realized that, despite his own words, he'd admitted something had happened to him by saying he wouldn't talk about. Desperate to cover his own slip up he picked up his trident and walked into the living room, first leaning it against the wall in there and then snatching it back again. It made him feel more comfortable, strange as it seemed.

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lostmyshoe
2011-06-23 06:22 pm UTC (link)

"What the hell? What the hell is that you're the dumbest...fucking..." Cassie's face screwed up in anger and she stomped her foot on the ground. It was a temper-tantrum, sure, and something she hadn't done since Ben had left the first time around. She was grumpy and her hand was throbbing, and it was doing little to improve her mood. "And your face is hard. What the fuck?" She snapped, as though it were his fault that she punched him in the first place. If she ever said she didn't share traits with Sam Winchester, she was lying.

"You have no fucking clue what my life is like, Ben," Cassie hissed, flopping herself down on the couch and purposefully not looking at him. Suddenly she was six again, annoyed by her older brothers and throwing a hissy fit because she wasn't allowed to join in on the boy fun. It was immature, sure, and not helping anything, but at the moment she couldn't think of anything else to do. She wanted to help Ben. Fuck, she wanted to surgically remove Finnick from his brain. Being a reincarnate sucked. And Ben really didn't have a clue, but was that his fault? She hadn't told him about Sam other than the demons. He didn't know the dark path Sam had gone down, how it wasn't all demons and ghosts and ghouls. Sam's enemies weren't just the supernatural, but other hunters as well. She was just lucky the only ones to show up so far were demons, and they were all dead...mostly. She hadn't had the heart to tell Ben about Shane's little message from Azazel.

"You always gotta hold that thing?" She asked, ignoring the hypocrisy. She carried a gun as often as she could. She wanted to point out to him that she would get him a gun if he needed a weapon, but his words stopped that train of thought. Her body went rigid, and she slowly looked up at him, face horrorstruck. "Something happened to you? Ben, what happ--" Her eyes widened further and she stood, body shaking. "I'll kill them. Where are they? Ben, where are they?!"

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withsecrets
2011-06-23 07:02 pm UTC (link)

In any other situation, Cassie throwing a hissy-fit would have been amusing or even outright hilarious. But right now, Ben was too angry to find anything all that funny. "Of course it is! You punched my fucking jaw. It's not like it's made out of feathers - that's bone."

"And who's fault is it that I don't know anything about your life?" he snapped, folding his arms across his chest and continuing to glare down at her as she sprawled all over his couch. Ben had never seen a lot of Supernatural and trying to watch it was even more difficult now that he had no TV. When he'd found out about Cassie being a reincarnate he'd started going to the library and watching the show online there, but it had been far more difficult now then it was the first time. For starters, knowing that Sam was really his little sister and watching her go through all that was more painful then Ben could have imagined. And then there was the fact that it did feel kind of invasive. So what if watching the show made him a hypocrite? He needed to know about Cassie's source, no matter how determined he was that Cassie not know about his.

Ben winced as he watched the wheels turn in her mind and the realization set in. She knew. Because Ben had been foolish and rash and too busy being angry to watch his words, she'd found out. It felt like his ribs were constricting around his lungs and he wanted to vomit. Fuck. He was so screwed. How could he fix this? He needed to fix this, needed for Cassie to go on thinking he was alright. "Cassie, that's not what I meant, really." He knew that wouldn't convince her - his voice sounded small and terrified and out of place, not determined and sure. Ben switched tactics. He let the trident clatter to the floor and grabbed her shoulders so he could try and make her sit back down on the couch.

"I'm fine, Cassie. See? Look at me, I'm fine. None of them have near me in ages, and they're not going to again. I made sure of that." He hoped she would assume that he'd kicked their asses instead of just started holding their secrets above their heads. "You don't need to be worried. It's not a big deal, seriously. Just calm down." Ben's face was pale and his expression panicked. He didn't know what he'd do if he couldn't keep up the facade, and he didn't want to find out.

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lostmyshoe
2011-06-23 10:52 pm UTC (link)

"Oh, I'm sorry. Am I supposed to open up to you about Sam's supernatural problems? I must've lost the memo in your hypocritical bullshit about Finnick." Cassie replied to him sarcastically, a running trend when it came to their conversations. Even from their first contact on the boards, the MacMahon siblings had fallen into a pattern of sarcastic and angry quips with each other, and at times Cassie hated it. It was never really anger towards each other, but at their prospective situations, and at times she envied the people who could have normal relationships with their family. Not that she expected that to ever change; the Winchesters were completely incapable of normal familial interactions.

"Then what did you mean, huh? Because it sure as hell sounds to me like something fucking happened to you and you're trying to backpedal!" Cassie's fingers found the gun in her pocket, a reassurance that it was still there in case the phantom attackers on her brother would magically burst through the door. She had a couple of bullets she could spare for them, she was sure.

When he grabbed her shoulders, she wanted nothing more than to shove him off of her again, but his voice and the look in his eyes stopped her. He looked upset, scared even, and for Ben to be scared... She swallowed nervously, trying to figure out what the hell could have scared her brother when he didn't seem scared of facing off with demons for her safety. She let him sink her back onto the couch but kept her gaze dead-locked on his, trying to read what she could from his expression. She didn't know specific details, but somebody hurt her brother, and she knew she wanted to make them pay.

"If it's not a big deal, how come you look like you're about to blow chunks in the middle of your living room? Come on, Ben..." Her voice got gentle now, the sight of him upset seeming to cut through the anger. "I'm not a little girl. You can count on me to help you."

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withsecrets
2011-06-24 03:49 am UTC (link)

"I'm not backpedaling! I'm just- just..." Ben groaned in frustration, scrubbing his face with one hand and trying to pull his thoughts together. But as panicked as he was, it was difficult for him to do that. All that he could focus on was the fact that she knew, and that everything was going to fall apart now. No one was supposed to know, ever. He didn't want looks of pity or have people going around thinking that he was some kind of whore. That because no one had physically forced him he must have enjoyed it or wanted it. Just the fact that his sister knew was making Ben's hands shake.

Ben began to pace back and forth across the room, running his fingers through his hair one moment and then tugging on the hem of his sleeve the next. He wished he had his rope, or just something to tie knots with. "It's not that I don't think I can count on you. It's that I don't want you to have to. I didn't want yo to find out." But that was all part of the problem, wasn't it? The MacMahons never had been big on sharing much of anything. Before all of this had happened it wasn't such a big deal. Now, things were different. Unless one of them took the plunge to try and trust the other, nothing was ever going to happen because both of them were terrified of sharing what had happened. So if Ben wanted to help Cassie... He was going to have to tell her.

That decided, it was like all the pent up energy flickered out of him. He sat down next to her on the couch, his shoulders hunched and his elbows on his knees. "When I left home, I did it because I was worried that if anyone from my source was reincarnated that they might try and hurt the people I cared about. And since I figured that you guys might try looking for me, I had to hide. That's when everything started going wrong." As he spoke, it sounded more like he was telling the story about someone else, and not particularly someone he cared about either. His voice was quiet and distant and he absolutely refused to look anywhere but at his hands.

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lostmyshoe
2011-06-24 05:00 am UTC (link)

"Just...?" Cassie prodded, trying to get him to talk more. His pacing was making her nervous, even if she shouldn't have been. It was her brother pacing because he was upset, not because he was some lunatic. She swallowed and nonchalantly touched her neck, remembering the last time she was in that room with him upset--and hoping he didn't notice her movement. She didn't want him to think she was scared of him or anything; which was totally stupid, she wasn't afraid of her brother, especially facing the likes of Alastair and Lucifer and... Okay, so she didn't want to get him to the place he was that time. It didn't make her afraid of him. Or ready to back down, even.

Cassie clasped her hands together between her knees, watching him pace quietly. It was true. The MacMahons weren't sharers. For Cassie, it was a trait that started because she had always felt her problems couldn't match what Jacob was dealing with, and the feeling that that was all her mom wanted to focus on anyway. It was just cemented and reinforced as she got older. Ben leaving, getting Sam... It just made her internalize more than was normal, and it wasn't a habit that was likely to change. But Ben was right even if he couldn't get confirmation from her right then--she wasn't going to share with him if he didn't first.

She wasn't expecting him to sit next to her, and especially with the wind knocked out of his sails. When he sagged onto the couch she frowned, watching him and hanging on his words for fear they might stop. Reading about Finnick was one thing; if she was going to separate Ben from Finnick, she needed to hear his life in his words. The way he spoke about himself, and especially the tone that suggested dislike for the star of his stories, made her stomach twist. She reached over to grab his hand, giving it an encouraging squeeze.

"You can tell me, you know. No matter what. Keep going."

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withsecrets
2011-06-24 11:27 pm UTC (link)

"Just... Ugh." Ben was so caught up in his own frustration and mind wracking attempts to find a way out of the mess he'd made that he thankfully didn't notice when Cassie put a hand to her throat. He still had yet to forgive himself for what he'd done that night, no matter how out of his control it had really been. Too much had happened for Ben to be able to be completely sane, even if he didn't even dare to think about the slightest possibility that he was a little cracked.

Ben blinked in surprise when Cassie took his hand, but otherwise didn't show any sign that he'd really noticed her support. He just hoped that she wouldn't notice how badly he was still shaking. "I came to L.A.," he went on, his tone of voice never changing. "I wanted to be near the ocean. You'd think there'd be more people who wouldn't mind hiring a kid and paying under the table, but there weren't. At least not that I could fine. I spent a lot of time crashing on strangers couches after parties. I'd raid their cupboards for food. Just... Anything I could do to survive. And then one day, I met her." He swallowed hard; he thought he was going to be sick just thinking about Imogene. Ben finally squeezed Cassie's hand back, probably a little harder then he should have, but he still refused to look up at her.

"We just met on the street. I don't even remember how we started talking, but somehow it came up that I was looking for a job and she told me she was looking for a personal assistant." What Ben still could remember was the warm feel of her slender hand on his arm, long nails digging into his skin through his sleeve. The way she'd smiled at him. It had seemed sweet and charming at the time, but he later learned it was a predatory grin. "It went well, at first. When she heard that I was living in one of the worst parts of town, she offered to rent out the finished basement of her house to me. And when I couldn't sleep because of the nightmares, she'd talk to me. That's how she found out about you guys. Because I was careless and stupid and I wanted to trust her. She was like an aunt, or an older sister."

Ben closed his eyes and took a shaky breath. "But that's not... How she saw me. And then I found out she wasn't really looking for a personal assistant. She threatened to turn me over to the cops for tax evasion, and for the fake I.D. I'd made, and she said that she'd make your lives a living hell unless I did whatever she wanted me to do. And she would have, Cassie. She really would have. She had the money and the connections, and she was more then vindictive enough to do it, just to spite me. So I did what she asked, so that I could keep you guys safe from my idiot mistake. I-" He stopped. He couldn't say it, not those words exactly. "I became to her what Finnick had been in the Capitol."

'I own you.' That what she'd always whisper to him, her breath hot against his ear as she grabbed his hand to guide him upstairs. He'd been so confused that first time, and so angry. He'd told her no, no way in hell, not in a million years. But then she'd just smiled and told him exactly why she owned him. At the time, he couldn't think of anything else he could do besides comply. And then she'd started to send him to strangers. Women, men, young, old, anyone would do. Having Ben to warm the bed of a friend or co-worker of hers did wonders for her career, as it turned out. But Ben would never tell anyone about that part; this much at least, he would take to his grave.

"So I did what Finnick did. I learned her secrets until I had enough to blackmail her back and get away." It had been easier said then done, and it had taken him almost four years before he had been able to leave that house for good, but he'd done it. Maybe it had been stupid to stay in L.A. afterwards, but it was a big city, and it had become his home. He knew her habits well, and he knew how to avoid her. He wasn't going to let his fear of her force him to leave the place he loved. And even if they did meet, he had the upper hand. "She can't touch me, or threaten to hurt anyone I love again. If I go down, I can just drag her with me."

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lostmyshoe
2011-06-25 01:13 am UTC (link)

Cassie wasn't sure what she expected when Ben started talking. Monsters in the closet? Ghouls under the bed? They were all viable options in her world, along with haunting spirits torturing him every day he was away from home. Hell, the way their lives were, Ben could've been imprisoned by a goddamn demon who somehow knew that he would somehow bring them Sam Winchester. It was the pattern of Sam's life; family, friends, fellow hunters all got hurt for the sake of tearing down the Winchesters and bringing on the Apocalypse. Realistically? She reigned Sam's paranoia in to try and figure out what it could have been that terrified her brother into secrecy. Drug dealers? Off alone at such a young age with no money, joining a gang was a viable and enticing offer when the alternative was the cold street and death. Loan sharks? Hell, she could picture some sick bastard beating the shit out of him every day. Those were all places her mind went, even if she could never make the people have normal eyes. For somebody so used to dealing with demons, she had a hard time accepting that humans could be their own brand of evil. Every nameless bastard had black, yellow, sometimes even white or red eyes.

What had actually happened was so much worse than she could have imagined. Ben hadn't even had to continue after he'd made the comparison between his experience and Finnick's life in the Capitol; the book was still fresh in her mind, so she was well aware of what that implied, and how sick it made her feel. Somebody had used her brother in the worst way imaginable. Not just that, but they had used her to do it. Her, Jacob, their mom and dad... Her free hand clenched into a fist but for once, she kept herself under control.

No, she'd save her anger for the bitch who did it.

"You're not going down," Cassie said quietly, and with a sigh she pulled herself on her knees so that she could turn to him and hug him properly. "I promise, Ben. Dragging her or not, you're not going down." And he wouldn't be. Plans were already half-forming in her head. She didn't have a name of the woman who had done it, but she had others. Hunter and Inez. Not exactly everyday names, and if they were reincarnates, they were on the boards. She'd talk to them first, see where that led her. Besides, the names sounded really familiar; she was sure she'd seen them somewhere before.

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withsecrets
2011-06-27 09:56 am UTC (link)

Of all the things that Ben had been expecting, this hadn't really been it. The MachMahon's weren't well known for keeping their tempers in check, and that was especially true for Cassie. She was always protective of the people she cared about, especially in light of what had happened with Jacob when he had been in high school. She would fiercely defend anything, and likely very loudly or sometimes violently, if she could, and sometimes even if she couldn't. After all, just like Ben, Cassie had run away from home in the hopes of keeping her family safe. There was little either of them wouldn't do.

So the fact that instead of rushing off and threatening someone's life, Cassie simply hugged him and tried to reassure him was startling, but not unwelcome. After that confession, Ben wasn't sure he was all that up for trying to stop Cassie from gong on a rampage.

Part of him wanted to ask what made her so sure he wasn't, but the other part of him didn't think he wanted to know the answer, or if there really was one. Ben was scared that one day Imogene would get better leverage on him then he had on her and would get back at him. It was a strong possibility, and who was Cassie to say that nothing was going to happen to him? But just like he was too exhausted to chase her down, he was too exhausted and scared to ask.

Instead, he wrapped his arms around her to hug her back and rested his forehead on her shoulder. "Yeah. If you say so." His own shoulders sagged and he clung a little tighter. Ben stayed there for longer then he probably should have, but he didn't care. If he were to sit back up before he was ready, the stinging in his eyes would likely turn to crying. He was a mess enough as it was. When he finally thought he could, Ben sat up and tried to disguise his wiping at his eyes as brushing the hair out of his face. "Sorry," he muttered. "And thanks for listening. Even if it wasn't all that... Pleasant." He tried to give her a dry smile that didn't quite meet his eyes.

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lostmyshoe
2011-06-28 03:49 am UTC (link)

It was funny how memories could creep up on you at the strangest moments, little pieces of time replaying themselves behind your eyelids because something minute had triggered them and shook them loose from their branches. The smell of a mother's perfume before Christmas mass, the smell of turkey cooking Thanksgiving. For Cassie, it was the feel of protective arms around her, the comfort of older brothers cheering her up after she fell off her bike trying to learn how to ride. The MacMahons were supposed to be a normal, apple-pie, white-picket-fence family. There was nothing about them that suggested extraordinary circumstances, nothing to foreshadow that two out of three children would be thrust into darkness.

But wasn't that they way it was supposed to be? Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some had greatness thrust upon them? They weren't characters in a Shakespearean play, but their lives did mimic those of their counterparts, and they had such great fallback because they were heroes. Heroes who fought to keep their little section of the world safe. She frowned at that realization but didn't let Ben see it, instead running her hand down the back of his head in as soothing a motion as she could. As the baby girl in the family, it was expected that she had a nurturing nature by principle. Reality deemed otherwise. After all, she was a 20-something, 6'4, supernatural-hunting red neck stuck inside the body of a young girl, right?

"Yeah, no problem," She said lamely and cringed, catching herself. He was probably expecting better words of wisdom to seal up the wounds she had freshly ripped open, but what exactly could you say to somebody about that kind've thing? Especially your brother? Instead she ruffled his hair with a half-smile that lacked any real happiness, and disappeared into the kitchen for a minute. It wasn't her place, but it didn't take her long to locate a glass and return to him with some water.

"Maybe we should, I don't know," She shrugged, sitting back on the couch next to him and holding the glass out. "Accept the fact that we're not alone anymore." Which was almost as hard as accepting she had to leave in the first place. But if she wanted to help Ben, she had to fully embrace the idea that she had actual family in the same boat as her. "You can rely on me for stuff, and I can rely on you, and we can get our heads out of our asses and just...yeah." At least, until she found the bitch. Then they could deal with that with a couple of shotgun shells.

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