Chapter 5/ Push

Nick glanced at the clock for the tenth time in the last minute, somehow hoping that the universe was playing a cruel joke on him. It read, as it did thirty seconds before, that it was currently twelve thirty. Nick sighed with frustration and continued to pace the small floor of the kitchen, throwing a hair through his messy hair. He was seriously beginning to get nervous. Cassie usually always checked in by now, or at least sent a quick and vague text to him whether she would or wouldn't be returning before morning. He never enjoyed the days when she would disappear without ever giving him a clear explanation of where she was going and what she was doing, but Nick took it all in stride. She was her own person and even though Nick liked to think he was taking care of her in some parental aspect, she had taken care of herself a long time before he ever met her. That and it was never easy having an argument with Cassie. Nick knew that she would eventually do what she wanted to do no matter what he said.

Frustrated at the thought, Nick eyed Tom, still awake and watching some French cartoon about an animated cat. Toms English had improved ten fold since living with Nick and Cassie over the past six months, and even though he still hadn't told them where he was from or how he had gotten those bruises, Tom had increasingly become closer with Cassie, following her around day and night. The attachment sometimes had made Nick uneasy, feeling as though Tom had some sort of prejudice against him. There had been many times when Nick would come home to find Cassie and Tom giggling about something and when he threw himself down next to him he could swear that Tom gave him a look of utter distaste before quickly retreating into his room. When Nick had talked to Cassie about it, she found it more than amusing and haunted him with taunts for days about how an eleven year old was threatening him. That had quickly shut Nick up.

Looking at Tom now he wondered if he knew anything more about Cassies whereabouts than he was letting on. Nick grunted and headed over to where Tom was sitting before quietly plopping himself down next to him on the couch.

"Tom, what exactly did Cassie say again?" Nick asked, disturbing Tom once again during his program. He heard an exasperated sighed from the boy before he answered angrily back.

"I 'ave told yoo already." Tom replied annoyed. "She said she 'as going wit thee checkout boy to thee movies."

Nicked frowned, unsure of his answer. Why hadn't he ever heard about this checkout boy before? And why was she so late getting home from a movie? Nick fidgeted uncomfortably at the thought of what could be happening. Division could have her, he though irrationally. The guy could've been a terrible person and left her somewhere alone and vulnerable. He sighed knowing he was going insane. The idea of Cassie standing around vulnerable was enough to laugh at. She had proven numerous times to him that she was anything but helpless. His face scrunched up in thought and worry, loosing himself in preposterous scenarios of why Cassie wouldn't respond to his phone calls.

" She still 'oves you thee most" Tom added, interrupting Nicks thoughts. Nick startled, feeling an odd sensation run through him. Not only had Tom said something completely irrelevant to their conversation, but he had said it with such dripping resentment that Nick was almost scared to be next to him.

"Aww, well Cassie loves you too." Nick said awkwardly. He turned to look at the young boy and gave a short laugh, desperate to lighten the situation between them. Nick raised his hand to ruffle Toms hair and Tom angrily ducked out of it and stood up in a huff, upset to be treated like such a child.

"Yoo know w'at I meen!" Tom yelled at him.

Nick quickly retreated his hand as Tom continued to give him the death stare. Well Cassie always liked it, he thought. Didn't she?

"Just loook in thee boook." Tom said scornfully, throwing one of his hands on his hips, giving the illusion that he was much older than he was. " 'nd by thee way, 'esterday she keessed me right 'ere!" he added, pointing to his cheek irritably and then stomped his way angrily into Cassies room, slamming the door behind him. Nick looked on completely dumbfounded. He does NOT like me… He thought sadly.

Nick glanced around the empty room, feeling even lonelier. Twelve forty three, the clock read and Nick let out a moan of impatience whiling throwing his head back. Shes such a pain in the ass, he sighed to himself. He let his head roll to the left side, facing a small nightstand next to the couch. On top of the stand laid Cassies drawing book and Nick eyed it curiously.

"Look in the book…" he mumbled to himself quietly as his hands shot out to grab it from its resting place. He didn't think it would really matter to Cassie whether he looked in it or not. Most often Cassie was drawing right next to him or showed him her visions-to-paper drawings later anyway, so he did not see the harm in glancing through it now. Its not her diary, he assured himself.

He quickly flipped through the first few pages, not really expecting to find anything, but his hand stopped suddenly on the fourth page and he drew in a sharp breathe at the site of Cassies drawing.

She had drawn herself kissing someone. And that someone was not Nick, as Tom had insinuated. This boy had long black hair pulled back into a short ponytail and his hand was on Cassies butt, pulling her into a seemingly warm embraced. Nick subconsciously ground his teeth together while staring at it.

"checkout boy" he grumble to himself angrily and he turned the page violently , almost ripping it out by accident.

But the next page showed an almost identical picture, except it was a different boy holding onto Cassie and once again it was not Nick.

"What the hell…" Nick said aloud, a subtle anger building in him slowly from the images. Who were these boys? He shuffled through the pages quickly, finding an entire slew of different men hold Cassie. Some of them weren't kissing her, just hugging her or holding her hand, but it angered Nick nonetheless. They were hugging his Cassie, he thought. He eyed one picture and actually remembered it. It had been in Moscow and Nick had opened the door to the motel they were staying at to find Cassie kissing a young boy goodnight after a short date. It had been awkward to say the least and Nick had tried to close the door unnoticed but they had already pulled apart at the noise. He remembered Cassie giving him a look of hatred, as he recalled that the boy had been from the supermarket earlier in the day. Nick hadn't gotten angry then, just uncomfortable, and that had been tangibly in front of him. But now, looking at the picture, he never felt more betrayed or ill tempered. He wanted to march up to her right now and demand to know what was going on. He had a right, didn't he?

He turned back and forth through the pages, counting to see how many of these indiscretions he didn't know about. Five, he thought and the number plagued in his mind before he finally turned the pages far enough to see the usual predictions of death, blood, and olives involving everyone. Some were of Cassie and Nick dying or of Cassies mother being saved, nothing he hadn't seen before. Nick scanned through them quickly suddenly becoming desperate to know what Tom had meant. He turned the book over and started from the back now. The first flip showed him a picture of himself, just his face, smiling. Cassie had done a great job at it too, shading and angling the picture. Nick gave a short grimace at the sight.

Finally, he thought to himself. At least there was one picture of him in here…

But he turned the page to find another one of him, then another, and another. In fact, the entire second half of the book seemed filled with detailed drawings of Nick, doing nothing in particular. The funniest part was, they didn't look like the predictions she Saw. The ones in the front of the book were obviously rushed; making sure Cassie got every detail she had Seen down. But Nicks pictures were intricate and looked more like portraits, as if she had spent hours getting his facial features accurate. There was one of him, Cassie, and Tom all standing next to eachother. The picture reminded Nick of a family Christmas postcard.

He continued to turn through them, examining each one with interest, unsure of how he felt about the whole thing. He stopped on one he found of just Cassie. She was laughing and the picture was almost an exact replica. As he stared at it a feeling of awe ran through him and the anger he had felt at her a moment before seemed to slip quickly away from him.

Just then he heard the door slam shut.

Shit. Nick panicked, feeling as though he had been indeed reading a diary. He quickly ripped out the picture of the laughing Cassie from the book and tucked it into his pocket before throwing the drawing book back onto the nightstand with a loud thump.

Cassie came strolling into the living a moment later wearing her black knee high boots, a plain white T, and skirt much to short for Nicks liking. He grimaced.

She went on a date in that? He thought to himself.

"Hey Nick." She said nonchalantly, and threw herself down onto the couch.

"Hey." He replied shortly. The strain in his voice was obvious and she looked up at him confused.

"What?" she asked innocently as she began kicking off her boots.

"Where were you?" Nick asked, already hating himself for sounding like such an overprotective prat.

"Out." She replied like it was obvious and shrugged her shoulders, not really caring what he sounded like. Nick glared at her for a minute before deciding to let it go.

"Right." he said a little too loudly and started to angrily leave the room, making sure his stomps were extra loud to get his point across.

"Whats you problem?" she called after him, suddenly realizing his anger. She went out all the time and never came home to this before. Something was going on, she thought and she stood up to get closer to him.

"Whats my-? Are you kidding?! Cassie, we're not normal people. You can't just go out whenever you want and not tell me! You-" He stopped his rant short, smelling something odd as she stepped closer to him. "Have you been drinking?" he asked enraged.

She gave him an annoyed look and rolled her eyes.

"I'm not thirteen any more." Cassie replied and started to move away from him again, realizing her mistake.

"Cassie, we've talked about this! God! What is wrong with you!?" he yelled at her, his rage now taking full effect. Cassie watched as his face became redder and his hands moved, gesturing harshly with every word. This wasn't right, Nick never yelled at her. They fought before, but he always came to her side eventually. Something was telling her that this wasn't the case this time. She knew she should've given in and just let him rant wildly before calmly talking with him later, but something about his self-righteous morals pissed her off and she would have none of it.

"Whats wrong with me?" she fought back. "I'll tell you whats wrong with me. How about the fact that my mother is being tortured in Divisions hands and the one guy I get stuck with is too scared to help me find her!" She watched Nick freeze at her words, a shade of darker red coursing through out his skin.

"That's not fair! You know I've been looking! And if my memory serves me right, you were the one that said Tom knew where she was." Nick stepped closer, gaining momentum in his voice. "So where is she Cassie? Huh?" His face had pulled up mere inches from her own, the heat of his fury radiating off of him. Cassies large blue eyes stared back at him coldly, not able to answer his question. Nick was right, she thought sadly. She had Seen Tom leading them to her mom, but the boy had been living with them for months and hadn't once told her anything. It wasn't that she didn't try, but every time Cassie tried to bring it up, Tom would duck out of the conversation purposely. Cassie didn't know why, but Tom was extremely reluctant to take her to where he knew she wanted to go.

Nick loomed over Cassie for a short minute, as Cassie refused to let down her gaze, determined to win this fight out of pure pride, when a small voice interrupted them from the corner.

" I know 'ere your mot'er ees."

They both turned to see a bashfully Tom standing in the room with them.

A/N:

Hey everyone. I'm so sorry to have left you all off for so long. Last time I checked this story I had about one or two people actually following it, then I checked it a few days ago and saw that a few more people added it to their favorites. That's great! But I didn't even realize it until now. I will definitely start posting more frequently on this fanfiction now though. Thanks for reading!