gone away }{ corban

[CASSIE MERCER]

Much of the night for Cassie consisted of dancing all over the house in a tank top and panties. Music blared all through the house while she danced and cleaned. Or tried to clean.

Danna had given the elf the night off in order for Cassie, Corban, Laurie, and Nathan to be put to work while the others went out. She wasn't sure why they had to clean while the elf did nothing. That was what elves were for! But Danna called it "character-building" while Laurie assured her it was something that happened quite often in their household. It was boring until you found you could use brooms, mops, and feather dusters for microphones while singing various songs by Sublime, Garbage, and Chumbawumba.

"I don't practice Santeria,
I ain't got no crystal ball,
Well I had a million dollars but I,
I'd spend it all,
If I could find that heina and that sancho that she's found,
Well I'd pop a cap in sancho and I'd slap her down.
What I really wanna know,
My baby,
What I really want to say I can't define,
Well it's love that I need, oh,
But my soul will have to,
Wait till I get back find heina of my own,
Daddy's gonna love one and all.
I feel the break,
Feel the break,
Feel the break and I got live it out,
Oh, yea huh, well I..."

Right in the middle of singing "Santeria", half using her mop as a dance partner and a microphone, the living room was nearly done and the front door opened. Cassie hardly paused in her performance, though she did turn to watch everyone come in. Christian had an unconscious man thrown over his shoulder. Danna shoved ahead of him, heading towards the basement so fast that Cassie hardly got a look at her. Cassie dragged the mop with her as she curiously in their direction to see what was going on.

"...I'm just saying, it's a little pathetic," Hailey said as she walked in with Richard. "Now we're missing out on a potential ally because dumbass had to go get himself killed. You would think someone that had been through so much with this family would have been more cautious and better prepared for this sort of thing. And think about it! If there are Aurors trailing one of us, they're likely to catch onto us before long. Why else would they be after him?"

"You know what Mother always says, Hails," Rick said in amusement. "If you can't survive with us you weren't good enough for us anyway."

"True," Hailey sighed.

"What happened?" Cassie asked curiously. She didn't often know much about the family business, but it always intrigued her. Whatever poor sucker they were talking about had to be a good story, even if it was supposedly bad for the family.

"Your father went and got himself killed," Hailey muttered irritably, though the sigh that followed was exaggerated, and the glimmer in her green eyes showed humor that was out of place in the situation. Shaking her head, the blond stalked off while Richard shrugged.

"Try to stay away from the basement for a while. We have work to do."

Cassie stared after them as they walked off. Rooted in the spot, her eyes remained trained in the direction long after they had gone. After a few minutes the mop fell out of her hands. Seconds later her legs gave out as she collapsed to the floor beside it. Breathing wasn't so easy as it should have been. She couldn't find air.

Daddy couldn't be dead. It was the first thought that came to mind since Hailey coldly displayed the news. It was a cruel joke. Everyone would come in and laugh at her for taking it seriously, tease her relentlessly over being so emotional, and she would hide herself away until the embarrassment faded, but life would go on and everything would be fine. Normal.

If she was so sure it was all a set up, then why did her chest hurt so much? Why couldn't she think straight? Struggling to take in a breath, Cassie grabbed the mop, moving her legs in an attempt to stand, without ever really making progress. She didn't really want to. The floor was fine. She probably needed to get Corban. Tell him how funny Hailey was being. Beg him to tell her it wasn't true. Something like that. But she didn't. After a few minutes of futile attempts she just stopped trying, hugging the broomstick to her chest tightly as she tried to make something make sense again.

[CORBAN DEVILLE]

Above all else, Corban hated cleaning.

"It builds character," Danna always said, something she typically just told them to get them to do something they didn't want to do. Corban couldn't wait until he grew out of it, and could start doing things that were actually useful to his mother and to the rest of the family. He'd rather wake up feeling like he'd been run over by the Hogwarts Express any day than spend his night cleaning the house. At least training was interesting. Cleaning was just the same old thing. At least it didn't happen every night. Just often enough for Corban to detest it with a burning passion.

He was cleaning the windows upstairs when he heard the others come home. It sounded like a herd of elephants, really, but he couldn't really make out anything anyone was saying. It was a bit of a commotion, but nothing really out of the ordinary. He was just glad to be on his last window and headed downstairs to dump out the dirty water.

"Hey," he said when he saw Cassie sitting on the floor. "Come on, Cass, if I have to do this shit, you definitely have to do it," he teased, coming over to gently kick her foot with his. Something wasn't right, he could tell, but a big part of him wanted to just carry on. He liked Cassie a lot, but she could be a bit emotional. Maybe it would go away.

He sighed, squatting down next to his twin sister. "Cassie, what's the matter?"

[CASSIE MERCER]

If anything could pull Cassie's focus, it was Corban. Hiccuping and smiling she turned to him as he squatted down beside her. Merlin he was so beautiful and perfect. How could anyone feel pain or sadness or anything negative around him? Smiling a bit more she grabbed his face and kissed him hard for several long seconds. "Absolutely nothing," she murmured when she pulled away, wondering why her vision was so blurry, hardly noticing the tears as they started to fall. "Daddy can't be dead. Hailey was just being mean....playing a mean, mean trick. Because Daddy..." She giggled hard. "Daddy can't die. He's my daddy. He's...he'll be around forever. He's too good to...to...what was it Hailey said? Yeah...too good to go get himself killed. By an Auror! Isn't that funny, Corban?" It was hard to tell if the noise now coming from her throat was a sob or a laugh or a strange combination of the two. "Isn't it, Corban? Isn't it funny? Hailey's so silly...so, so silly. Daddy...Dead...ha!"

[CORBAN DEVILLE]

Corban was only mildly surprised when Cassie pressed her hands into his cheeks, kissing him hard. His teenage mind reeled, and he leaned into the kiss, kissing her back with ardor. Merlin, there were so many things he'd rather be doing than cleaning the house. Cassie, for instance, was the one that came immediately to mind.

They parted after a few seconds, and Cassie shook her head, shakily trying to convince him that nothing was wrong at all. She reasoned that their father couldn't be dead; Hailey was just playing a joke on them. Corban's eyes widened, and he swore his stomach nearly fell out of his ass. He couldn't say anything, only listen as Cassie babbled on about what a silly, mean trick it was for Hailey to play. Everyone was aware that she didn't exactly like Jesse. And Jesse... killed by an Auror... it had Cassie in hysterics.

"Yeah... that is funny, Cass," Corban answered her humorlessly, just staring at her while the shock settled in. Jesse, his father, the man who had raised Cassie, who had split up with Danna for the safety of all four of them, whom Corban had only just really met a few days ago... dead at the hands of an Auror? Was that where his mother had run off to in such a hurry?

No, his mind chuckled along with Cassie. No, it couldn't be. That was stupid, it was something else. There was a mix-up, that had to be it.

Something else in Corban was grimly positive that that was not the case.

"What did you see, Cassie?" Corban asked, and inside his own head his voice sounded a bit far away. "What did Hailey say?"

[CASSIE MERCER]

Corban had asked a question, but Cassie couldn't quite answer. She opened her mouth several times, but only managed to lose breath or sob or laugh or shriek. It took a few minutes to get herself under control enough to say, "He wasn't with them. Chris had...had a body but it wasn't Daddy. It was...Auror robes...and...Whew. Err...What did she say? What did she say? Oh...she was saying how pathetic it was that Daddy got himself killed by an Auror and how he screwed up the family and our plans or something by not being careful or something. I don't know. It doesn't matter, does it, Corban? She was just joking. Just joking. Wasn't she Corban? You don't believe it, do you? Cause that's just...that's just weird. Daddy can't die. No Auror would...no could...Just...I mean...C'mon!"

[CORBAN DEVILLE]

Corban had never seen Cassie like this before. Whatever trick Hailey was playing was really getting to her. Only Corban had a sinking feeling that it wasn't a trick at all. It wasn't that he didn't trust his father's abilities; Corban hadn't known him long enough to make a judgement like that of his own. All he knew was that Danna thought Jesse was good enough to have around, and that was all that Corban needed. Besides, the man was his father.

Cassie explained what she'd seen, how they'd all come back at once with a body that wasn't Jesse's. Instead, the person was dressed as an Auror. Wouldn't they have at least brought Jesse;s body back? Then again, he hadn't been with them. Surely they wouldn't just leave him wherever. But if he was still alive, where was he? Hailey seemed to think, or wanted them to believe that she did, that Jesse had fucked everything up by getting himself killed by an Auror. Corban was beginning to put the pieces together in his mind. Jesse gets killed, Danna and Christian and Hailey and Cameron are there, they capture the murderer, bring him back here. And leave Jesse in the street? And if they were there, why couldn't they stop it? There would have been five of them, and they only had one Auror. There were just too many questions to answer, and only one way to find out.

Cassie was practically begging him to tell her it wasn't true, and Corban looked at her, though he couldn't quite manage a smile. "Yeah, Cassie. She was just joking. Of course she was, come on. An Auror? We all know what a waterworks you are, she was just trying to get under your skin," Corban teased, nudging her. He wished he could believe a single word of what he'd just said.

"Come on," he said, rising and bringing his wand out of his pocket and heading for the door. "Let's go bring him back."