MY IMMORTAL

The Parting Glass

That night I turned on the TV to see my own face plastered all over the news. Oh brilliant. Maybe going on the sabbatical with Dad was a good idea but I really couldn't gather up much enthusiasm for it. The warehouse collapse and survival of the kidnap victim was high profile hot news apparently. The details of how I had prevented Scotty's death and then ran back into danger to pull out other survivors had become the topic of the day. I imagine this was only the case because I was already such an interest point due to Niall Horan. Yes getting away with Dad for a while was, without doubt, a good idea.

Dad picked me up two day's later hours before dawn. I had been hiding out in my apartment and hounded by phone calls for interviews the entire time. Escaping in darkness was an extreme and necessary measure. I ran out to Dads car and threw my pack in the back as quickly as I could manage it. I climbed into the passenger seat of his Range Rover and he pulled away from the curb. We were headed down to Wollongong. He wanted to trek across the rough terrain and head inland. It would be a challenge. We took very limited supplies. Dad was a hard-core survivalist. As I buckled in I turned to see his expression and it told me that I was in for a long hard trip.

Dad was clearly pissed. Bear had told him everything. What a give up. "I thought you CD boys were supposed to be good at the 'what happens on the mission stays on the mission' thing?" I tried the defensive approach. Shut down by one of his don't even think about it glares.

"Cassie, what is going on with you?" He waited for me to answer.

"Seriously Dad?" I couldn't believe he was expecting one. Hell, I couldn't believe he actually asked that question. He never imposed like this. Everything that happened and he never once pushed me to tell him what was going on. He used to wait until I went to him. Sometimes I found it frustrating that he would never ask but I learned to really appreciate it, especially after the attack at the university. All the nightmares and he never asked, not to mention the Niall saga and my meltdown and still, he waited till I went to him.

"Seriously, I want to know. All of your life I have understood why you do what you do but this.... I don't get it."

I didn't know what to say. We always did have a kind of unspoken understanding. We simply got each other. I guess I didn't really need to tell him anything about all those times I was messed up and confused because he knew exactly what I was thinking or feeling. But how on earth could he get this? I didn't even understand it. How did I sense the things I could, how did I know the correct choices? So far I just put it all down to training and luck but lately, luck was not an acceptable explanation. It wasn't luck, I pulled Scotty out just before the wall collapsed. I saw it happen in my head. I saw it happen like a premonition and then I stopped it. It wasn't luck, I actually knew what was going to happen and this was not the first time it happened.

"I can't explain it, Dad. Bear thinks I'm taking risks but truly they're not risks. It's like I see it all happen before it does so I know just how to stop it." His expression was unreadable. What was he thinking? Was I freaking him out? "I use to get these bad feelings that would warn me you know? You ever get that?"

"I don't know, sometimes I think. Like the hair on the back of your neck standing up, that type of thing? Yeah, sometimes."

"Well picture that on steroids. With like moving pictures, like three dimensional, hologram moving pictures or something." I hope he didn't think I was going crazy.

He looked at me strangely for a bit and then he was looking through me, I could see him processing what I had said. Then, at length, he broke the silence. "Sassy, you have always been a little on the touched side. From the day you arrived. I don't even pretend to understand what you mean but I know that you wouldn't do such crazy things without a good reason. I also know that you were meant for bigger things than this extraction stuff. I'm glad Bear took you off the team."