The evening had begun to wind down; It was a day of celebration in many ways.  Not only was his sister celebrated, but Colton’s only nephew was too.  Though heartbreaking to watch, it was the perfect timing to celebrate Cassie’s loss.  It was a fresh loss to the family, but a loss his sister felt alone for those five years.  While driving, Colton’s mind begins to drift, and he thinks about what the little fella would be like.  Would he look like Cassie, would he act like a Hurst, or would those dreaded Mikaelson genes be the predominate trait.  The thought of that almost made him ill.

He looks back into his rearview mirror as Sammy is in the backseat asleep and smiles. Lily’s head is resting on his shoulder as he drives down the dark road. He parks in front of her house and begins to wake her up. “Lily we are here.”  He gently rubs the top of her head.  “You get the door, and I will grab little man from the backseat.” Colton steps out of the car, opens the door for Lily, and she walks up the step unlocking the door.  Colton follows behind with Sammy in his arms, they walk in and take him to his room. Colton lays him in bed, giving him a kiss on his forehead. Lily slides in to help tuck him in and gives Sammy a kiss, turning off the light. As they walk down the hall, Lily turns to Colton.” Would you like some coffee before you leave?” Colton nods with a smile.

While she starts to make coffee, Colton sits down on a stool at the kitchen island.  They go over the events of the day, as Colton’s phone rings. He looks at the time and hits the phone turning the speaker on. “This is Colton.” The man on the other end of the line starts to talk. “Colton, this is Officer Hernadez. I was told to call you and let you know there has been a fire at your parents’ house.” Lily gasps as Colton answers. “How bad is it? Was anyone hurt?” The officer continues. “Well, it seems Summer Hurst was home during the fire. She has been taken to the hospital. What I have been told is she is not doing well. They say it is touch and go at the moment.” Lily drops the coffee pot to the floor as tears fill her eyes. Colton stands quickly and grabs her, holding her for a second. “I have to go, sir. I will let you know what is going on as I find out more. I am sorry Colton.” The officer hangs up as Colton looks at Lily. “I need to get to the hospital. I will come back after I check on Mom and Pops. Please don’t tell Sammy or Cassie till I get back.” Lily hugs him tightly and lets him go. “Please be careful.” She says as he heads for the door.

Colton runs out of the house to his car and jumps in and speeds down the street. Within minutes he is at the hospital. He runs in, looking all around and sees Hunter sitting in the waiting room. Hunter, still wearing the bloodied, smoke infested clothes he had on earlier.  He is sitting there just staring at the wall. Colton sits down next to him and puts his hand on his shoulder. “Pops, what the hell happened? How is Mom?” Hunter blankly looks over at Colton. “Hey boy, how long have you been here?” Colton seems confused and looks at his dad. “I just got here Pops, how is Mom?” Hunter stares back at the wall. “Not good boy. There was a lot of blood. She had to have hit her head good. When I got there, the house was on fire. I should have been with her. This does not seem right. I need to do something, anything. I… We cannot lose her.”  Colton looks at him, it is the first time he has ever seen him this way. He looked scared; he looked like his heart was breaking in two. “Pops, you just be here for mom. I will take care of everything. I am going to go see her. You stay here right now.”

Colton walks over to the nurse’s station and asks for his mother’s room number.  “I’m sorry sir, no visitors allowed just yet, the doctor is in there working on her.”  He begins to get aggravated and decides to go walking down the hall.  He stops for a moment, checking every room on his way down. The last room at the end of the hall was his last chance, He gets to the door, peeks in and sees the top of his mother’s head.  Before he enters the room, he pulls out his phone and starts to text someone. Kami, it is Colton. I need you to get access to the cameras in my folks’ house for tonight. Send me everything you find. Thanks.

He walks into the room and sees the doctor and a nurse standing over his mother. She has a tube down her throat, is hooked up to too many devices that were beeping and flashing. He looks at the doctor. “How is my mother doing?” The doctor turns to Colton. “Well, to be honest, only time will tell. She has a bad head injury. Seems she either fell against something sharp and hit it hard or someone….”  Colton quickly turned his head to the doctor.  “Or someone WHAT?” The doctor puts his hand on Colton’s shoulder, “It’s too early to say, son, but we had to put her into an induced coma, so the swelling on her brain can go down and we can see the total damage. We will have to keep her like this for a few days or maybe a week.” Colton looks at the room and then back at the doctor. “First, you move her to a private room with an extra bed. Knowing the old man, he is not going to leave her side.” Colton pulls out a piece of paper and pen and writes on it and hands it to the nurse. “These are the only people who are allowed to see her. If anyone else tries to get in here, then you call me and then call the police. Let me know when she in her new room.”  

 

It’s 6:30 Sunday morning; Mother’s Day.  Cassie is awakened from her sleep from several text message pings.  She rolls over, spewing a few cuss words while she focuses her eyes as she reaches for her phone.  The message was from her college friend, Kami.

Cas, I’ve gotten most of the footage of 2 cameras Colton asked for from your parents’ house. I asked him what time frame and area he was inquiring about so I could get better details, but I haven’t heard back, 8/10 are online via generated power so signal is weak.  I sent him photos of what I have so far to his email.  I hope your mom is okay.  There is a lot of smoke I must dissolve to get a clearer picture, that must have been a bad fire.  I will keep in touch.

As she continues to read, she scrolls through her phone to see why she had not heard the calls.  Going through her phone, she sees that not one call came from anyone.  She quickly gets up from her bed and immediately calls Colton.  The phone goes to voice mail each of the 4 times she’s tried to call.   She then calls Lily. 

The phone rang three times, before Lily would answer, on the fourth, you hear Lily’s sleepy voice.  Cassie immediately responds.  “Where is my brother, I’ve been trying to call him.”  Her tone was angry, and Lily could tell; hesitant, to say anything, she gives little detail knowing Cassie’s state of mind. “He is at the hospital, Cas.”  Lily felt bad for betraying Colton’s wishes, but she could not lie.  She would want to know the truth.  Without so much as a good-bye, Cassie hangs up.  Lily, now fully awake sits up in her bed; she immediately texts Colton.

Heads up!  Cassie just called me, she sounded angry.  She asked where you were, I told her.  I did not tell her anything, she did not give me time anyway, she hung up on me.  I am sorry. How is Mom and Dad?

Without hesitation, Cassie begins to get dressed.  She wonders what could have happened, as it had only been just a few short hours ago that everything was fine. She begins to fumble around for her key.  “Where are my damn keys?” She continues to search, realizing she rode to the ranch with her father.  She searched for what seemed like an eternity before she remembered her gift from Hunter.  She rushed out the back door, hoping the keys would still be in the ignition. “YES!!!”  She jumped in, leaving everything else behind. 

She was about thirty minutes away from the hospital and the truck was beginning to act up.  The more she tried to speed, the slower the truck went.  She tried calling her dad, but quickly stopped the call; he had enough to worry about with mom, she did not need to burden him with truck issues.  The truck seems to be moving slower and slower.  She pulls off the road just across from Barnes & Son’s Garage.  She steps out of the truck and hurries across the street, she notices a young man standing Infront of the door and she shouts. “Hey!!  Can you help me?”  The guy turns to see a distraught female running in his direction.  He glares as she continues to walk up to him.  Cassie, looking like she had just come from an overnight frat party, now stands at the front door with the young man. “Can you look at my truck, it will not move fast when I put my foot on the gas.”  The young man smiles, Cassie was barefoot, she still had her makeup on from the day before and her hair looked as though she just won two rounds in a pillow fight.  

“Sure, where is your truck.”  He continues to smile.  Cassie points across the street.  “Nice ride! Are the keys inside?” the young man replies. Cassie nods as he begins to walk across the street.  As Cassie stands by the door, her cell phone rings, and she puts it on the speaker.  It was finally Colton.  “Where are you?”  Cassie yells before even saying hello.  “I am at the hospital, Cas…” He gets cut off immediately. “I know, I had to find out from Lily, after I tried calling you several times.”  There’s a silence on the phone for a moment Cassie looks up and sees the young man getting into her truck. “He better not try to steal my truck.”  She goes back to the phone call as Colton questions her. “What’s wrong, What did you say?”  “Nothing..Why didn’t you call me?”  The young man slowly pulls the truck into the shop, he steps out overhearing the conversation Cassie was having.  “Cassie, calm down..” This only makes her angrier as she gets louder on the phone. “Don’t you tell me to calm down!”  The young man tries to exclude himself from the situation, not wanting to listen to a lover’s quarrel.  “Miss, is everything ok?”  Cassie ignoring the young man focuses upon the conversation.  Colton now wonders what’s wrong with his sister and why there is a male’s voice in the background continuing to question her. “Cass, what is going on?”  Cassie paces the area. “Can you fix it?  I need to get to the hospital.”  The young man nods, “I can, yes.  But it will take a couple of hours.”  Cassie yells out.  “I MAY NOT HAVE A COUPLE HOURS” Colton can sense something bad must be wrong for Cassie to be acting that way, he tries to get her to settle down the best he can and find out what else could possibly be wrong.

“CASSIE…”  he gets her attention, “Are you ok?”  She snaps back furiously, aggravated by everything going on.  “YOU tell me, Colton! How well do you think I am?  I wake up to a text from Kami about Mom and a house fire..When NOONE bothers to tell me!”  You can hear Colton’s sigh on the other end of the phone.  He remains silent because nothing he could say at this point would calm his sister down.  “Just come to the hospital, I will explain everything.”  At this point, Colton knows he must hang up; talking to her in this state of mind would only make her angrier, or even worse, bring forth Vanity. 

Cassie was just starting to regain her life back, Colton’s fear now, was his mother’s accident triggering her back into that downward spiral.  The young man looks on, wondering what to do.  He was just going to open his father’s shop this morning to sit around, hoping for some work to do.  “Miss, I could take you to the hospital.”  The young man looked over to Cassie who seemed to be lost in thought.  “My name is William; my father and I own this shop.  We can lock your truck up in here, and I can take you to the hospital, who ever is there, seems rather important to you.”  Cassie sighed and a slight smile rose upon her face.  “You would do that for me?  You don’t even know me.”  She looked cautiously at the young man.  “Well, from what I could hear from your conversation you politely had on speaker, your name is Cassie.” He smiles. “About that…” Cassie seems somewhat embarrassed.  “It’s quite alright, Miss Cassie,” he pauses, “May I call you Cassie?”  The young man was such a gentleman; something she was not used to.  “Sure, I guess.”  She replies.  “Good, so Cassie, how about that ride?”  He smiles.

“Let me get my things from the truck first.”  William steps aside as she opens the truck door.  She thumbs around nervously.  “Where is my bag?”  William shrugs, “My bag, all my stuff was in there, my wallet; everything!”  William slides in next to her, trying to help look.  “I did not see anything in the seat when I got in. Are you sure you had it; you seem to look like you left in a hurry.” Cassie gives him an evil glare. “What in the hell does that mean, what are you trying to say?”  He smiles and looks down to her feet.  Cassie follows suit and her eyes widen, and her face shines a bright red with embarrassment.  William just smiles.  “Like I said, you must be in a hurry.  Look, we can stop someplace, and I can get you a pair of shoes.”  Cassie shakes her head.  “I am no charity case, I have money.”  William just smiles again.  “Alright, let’s get going then.”  William proceeds to lock the shop as he escorts Cassie to his car that is parked around the side.  “Well, this is it.  It’s not as fancy as your truck, but it will get you to the hospital safely. “He walked around to open the door for Cassie.  “This is your car?”  She looks in awe.  “Yep!  This is Ol’ Goat, my ‘65 Mustang, He’s a little rusty, but he’s been put up for a while.”   William pats the roof of the car.  “He’s beautiful!”  Cassie smiles.  William smiles, shakes his head and he shuts Cassie’s door.  He steps in, starts the engine and you can hear the engine roar.  Cassie’s eyes light up and her excitement shows.  “You ready?”  William asks.  Cassie nods and they hum down the road.

They reach the shoe shop, and Cassie walks in, she doesn’t see a familiar face in sight.  She walks over to the sandals and picks up a pair.  Walking to the counter, the girl looks at her in a disgusting manner. Cassie catches the look and is quick to respond.  “You have a problem?  I’d like to buy these shoes.”  The girl takes the shoes from the counter and looks at the girl in the office.  “Look here, Desperate Debbie wants to buy these shoes.”  The girl from the back walks up and they begin to laugh.  Cassie looks confused at the two as she turns to see if anyone else was behind her.  There were several people in the shop, but none was paying attention.  “Whose Desperate Debbie, and why did you just take my shoes?”  Cassie looks over to both girls. The girl behind the counter snubs her nose up at her while asking her to leave. Shocked and disrespected, Cassie begins to say something just as William steps up behind her.  The two girls behind the counter smile and giggle to one another.  “Do we have a problem here, ladies?”  Cassie turns to see William standing behind her.  “This girl,” The female behind the counter points to Cassie. “Thinks she can buy these shoes.”   William smiles and taps Cassie on the shoulder.  “Is that true Miss.”  He winks at her.  Cassie stands looking confused.  “Ya, I have an account here.”  One of the girls snicker as the other snubs her nose once again.  “Ok, what is the name?” one of the girls asked.  “Cassandra Hurst.”

The girls begin to thumb through the black book they pulled from under the counter.  They see the name, however, not impressed. “We need to see some ID, Miss Cassandra Hurst.” The girls giggle.  Cassie looks frustrated, she knows without her wallet, she could not prove who she was.  She begins to look around for any familiar face, as there was none.  She lets out a frustrating sigh and turns to William.  “Can you help me out here?”  William smiles, “Well, miss, I don’t have your id, I am sorry.”  He stands smiling.  Cassie gives him an evil glare and he stands now, crossing his arms across his chest.”  “What I COULD do is…”  He raises an eyebrow to Cassie. “I could buy those sandals for you since, you know..you don’t have any money.”  He begins to pull out his wallet and he nudges Cassie in the shoulder playfully as he gives the girl his card.  The two girls stood in disbelief, shocked at his gesture.  Cassie grits her teeth and glares two William as he continues to smile.  The two make their way out of the store and back to William’s car.  “You’re an ass!”  She looks too William as she slips the sandals on her feet.  He continues to smile.  “You’re welcome.” He says.

William starts the engine and off they go once again.  Cassie, sliding her eyes over to her left, trying not to be obvious, sees William begin to laugh.  “What is so funny.”  She asks.  “The way you are looking at me, while trying not to.”  He says playfully.  “By the way..you may want to focus on your looks, before going into the hospital.  They may try and keep you.”  He cuts a glare over to Cassie who snarls her nose up at him with a grunt.  She flips down the mirror wiping the dust off.  She takes notice to the messy bed hair and day-old makeup and screams.  “OH MY GOD!!..YOU REALLY LET ME GO INTO THAT STORE LOOKING LIKE THIS AND DID NOT TELL ME!”    She quickly tries to finger brush her hair and wipe the day-old mascara from under her eyes.   “YOU ARE AN ASS!”   William smiles, “I’ve been called worse.  Come on, lets get you in that hospital.”

Cassie and William make their way inside the front lobby.  There is nobody sitting at the desk.  Cassie begins to Call Colton. "Hey, where are you, I'm here.  What room is Mom in?" Colton is standing up the hall, he looks up to see Cassie walking in with some guy. He walks down the hall, grabs Cassie by the hand and pulls her outside. As she pulls back Colton pulls harder. She tries to pull her arm out of his hand and William takes notice of what’s happening and stops Colton with a hand to his chest. "Woah their killer. You should let her go. I don't know who you are, but you never treat a lady like that." Colton stops mid step and looks at William. "Who the hell are you and what are you doing with my little sister? You might want to think about turning around and walking off, before you get hurt." William just smiles at Colton's face. "Well, you better eat a ham sandwich and bring a friend, if you think I am going to stand by and let you act like that to her."

Cassie's eyes widen and she spreads a smile so big that last night's dinner could still be seen on her teeth.  "WOAH...Guys, stop!"  Colton, this is William, we just met.  He was nice enough to bring me here because the truck messed up, and nobody."  she pokes her finger in Colton's chest hard. "Bothered to tell me what the hell was going on sooner!"

Colton turns to face Cassie, "I did not want to tell you till I knew everything. There was no sense of you coming here and blowing a gasket. If you stay calm, I will fill you in on everything," He turns to William and stares at him. "Thanks for bringing my sister her, but she is done with you now. You can leave."

Cassie gives Colton an evil glare. "Let me get this straight, you had NO intentions of telling me about Mom until YOU knew what was going on?  What kind of monster are you, Colton?  SHE is MY MOM too!  Where is Dad?  I want to see him NOW!"  Cassie looks to William, “You don't have to leave if you don't want to, but I still think you are an ass, and thank you for everything, I will pay you back for the shoes.  I still can't believe you let me go in that store looking like a crack muffin."  she slaps him on the shoulder.

William hands her his card and smiles. "Here is the number to shop. I am going to head back and get to work on your truck. If you need anything give me a call. If you need a ride back to the shop, I am more than happy to come get you and drive you back. It has been a pleasure." He looks over to Colton. "See you around Dick." With a wave and a smile William walks out the door.

Colton looks over at Cassie. "I am going to hurt that guy. Ok so here is everything I know. There was a fire at the house. They saved most the house, it was mainly the front room and the entryway. Somehow Mom fell and hit her head. They had to put her in a coma, because of the swelling on the brain. They said it might take up to a week." Colton takes Cassie down the hall into a private room. Cassie sees her mom with all the tubes and machines hooked to her. As she looks to the right she sees another bed next to mom's. In the bed Hunter is sound asleep holding Summer's hand in his. He is laying on his side, so he can keep his other hand touching her.

 

Cassie's eyes begin to water.  She steps quietly to her mom's bedside, gently rubbing her head.  She looks over to her dad as he is still wearing the clothes he had on last night.  She turns to look to Colton.  "Is she going to die?"  She tries not to wake Hunter, but his eyes begin to open slowly.

He looks up at Cassie. "No little one. Nothing is going to happen to your mom. She is the toughest person I know. No bump on the head can keep her down. Here, you sit on the bed, I am going to go hit the lobby and get some coffee. I have slept enough. If she wakes up tell her I will be right back." Hunter walks out of the room and just sits down in a chair in the hallway.

Cassie begins to sit, and stare amongst all the machines.  How could the Matriarch of the family be lying helpless on a hospital bed; she was in fact the toughest woman she's ever known.  Cassie picks up the hand that her dad was holding earlier.  "Her hands are cold.  She is cold, Colton."  She begins to search around for a spare blanket. As she does, she looks out of the door, seeing Hunter sitting in a chair with his head lowered and held in his hands.  "How is he, he doesn't look so good. Is all that mom’s blood on him?  How did the fire start anyway?"  She looks to Colton as he stands glaring down at his phone, texting Lily.  "Hey, check your e-mail, Kami said she sent you some pictures." Cassie says while noticing his blank stare.  Colton spaces out for a minute. "I don't think he is doing ok. He did not even recognize me when I first got here. This has messed him up good, and yeah, that is her blood. He ran into the house before the fire department got there and carried her out." Colton goes through his phone. "Damnit I can't find it. Here you look for it."

Cassie takes the phone, she thumbs through his emails and comes across Kami's, she clicks on the attachments.  and begins to look at the images.  The first image is at a time frame of 4:00pm Friday. Cassie's Birthday, there is an image of an old beat-up blue car parked in the drive-in front of the house, Cassie does not recognize the car, so she continues with the images.  The second picture is of a person in a red hooded shirt standing Infront of the car facing the front door.  Kami’s note says, "Zapped pic from side camera, couldn’t zoom in any closer” The other set of images are from inside the house.  It was from the kitchen with a straight view of the sofa.  This was a video clip.  Cassie presses the footage.  It shows the back of Summer's head resting on the sofa, it looks as though she was falling asleep, because she jerks up, looking straight to the front door, which is the view from the camera.  There is no sound, but as the video is zoomed in, you see Kita jump from the room straight over the sofa, knocking Summer off her feet and sprinting to the front door area.  "Oh My God."  Cassie yells.  "Something or someone was in the house and spooked Kita!  She continues looking at the footage.  From there, just to the far left of the video, you can see the smoke form; you cannot see what started it, but Cassie figures it out.

"Colton, you need to look at this.  Kami said she had more footage to go through, but this seemed to be the jest of what happened."  Mom has that small table sitting on the side of the couch where the smoke is coming from.  You can't see it from the angle, but I think she had a candle there.  Maybe it was lit or something.  But it looks like Kita is what caused her to fall. I just want to know whose car was in the front and who that person is."  The time frame on the video says 9:00 Friday.  Colton looks at the phone and mumbles to himself. "That stupid SOB! Cassie, you know who this is. It is Xander. Remember that moron from when I was watching over Sasha? You know what this means don't you? This is the work of Damon's father. You need to have a talk with that boy before I do."

Cassie begins to think, she remembers the name, but tries to put that part of her life to rest.  "Colton, if Damon's dad is involved in this, I'm not sure I can..." she pauses trying to regain her strength to think of what could happen again.  "I will talk to him, it's just.."  She pauses.  "I..I don't know if I can.."  She gets up from the bed and begins to run out of the door passing Hunter as she does.  He lifts his head slowly and mumbles under his breath.  Colton steps outside of his mother’s room.  He stares at Hunter as he walks over, sliding down beside him and puts his hand on his shoulder.  “Don’t worry pops, I will handle this.  The only thing you need to do is be with mom. Do you want to go back to the house and get cleaned up?”  Hunter shakes his head looking into the room. “I won’t leave her, son.  I can’t.”  He leans up in the chair, places both hands on his lap looking at his clothes. “You could bring me a change, if you don’t mind to, son, but I can’t leave her.”  Colton leans up and nods. “Will do Pops.  Do you need anything before I head out?  I am going to catch up with Cass, she seems a bit out of it.  I hope this doesn’t set her back.”  Colton looks down the hall, hoping Cassie will return.  Coming from around the corner are two police officers, they seem to be coming to their direction.  Colton taps Hunter on his shoulder and nods over in their direction.  “I wonder what they want, I’m gonna stick around a few more minutes ok, Pops.”

The two gentlemen step up to Colton and Hunter,

"Good Evening Mr. Hurst, I'm officer Hernandez, I was at your house last night.  and this is my partner, Officer Stone.  How is your wife doing?  May we ask you a few questions?" Colton turns to the officers and begins to talk. "What questions do you have? My mom is in there holding on to dear life and my dad is just trying to be here for her. Why don't you go and find the people that broke into the house. I think that would be better use of your time, don't you?" Officer Stone looks to Colton. "Sir, that is our job, this is why we are here, to find out what happened.  And you said someone broke in?  How do you know that?" He takes out his note pad and begins to scribble on his paper. Colton rolls his eyes. "Because it is the twenty first century and everyone has cameras in their houses now. My folks live outside of town, they have money and people know them. Do really think they wouldn't have cameras? You can't be that stupid, can you?"

Officer Hernandez places his hand up to try and contain the situation.  "Mr. Hurst, we understand you are upset, but I really must ask these questions of your father.  since he was the one on the scene. “He looks over to Hunter who just stares back.  "Mr. Hurst, when you arrived, did you notice any sign of forced entry?  Hunter looks at Colton and looks at the Officer. "I did not have time to check. I knew my wife was home by herself, and the fucking house was on fire. I just ran in to get her. No, I did not stop to look for clues. Do you think I had time for that, or should I just leave my wife in there to die? "Hunter moves up to the officer's face. Hunter looks down at the officer and says in a deep, dark voice. "Like my son said, you should be looking for the son of a bitch that broke into my house."

Colton looks at the cops. "Who called the Fire Department and the police? I know my dad did not do it. There is no one around there for miles. No offence Pops, but that house should be ashes now. So, who called them?" Officer Hernandez steps back from Hunter's body.  as Officer Stone begins to step up.  "There was this anonyms call to 911 around 8:45 pm Friday night.  The number came from a private wireless phone.  The recording was a male voice."  These cameras you say you have; may we see the footage from them?"

Colton takes a second and then speaks. "Well, I don't have them. We would have to check the server to get them." Colton puts his hand in his pocket and hits some buttons and goes back to talking. "Pops I think we are done with these guys. Let’s go check on mom and I will get you some clean clothes from home." Officer Stone moves up and stands in front of Colton and Hunter. "We are going to need your old clothes after you change." Colton steps up to the cop and stares him in the eyes. "The fuck you do. You just need to go do your job." He looks at Officer Hernandez. "Next time you want to talk to us, call our lawyer, and leave that dumbshit at home. He is two words from falling down and not getting back up." Colton flips Officer Stone the middle finger and takes Hunter to see Summer. Hunter looks over at his son, nods his head and smiles.

While the two officers remain still in front of Summer's room, Cassie comes around the corner.  She is holding a bag of Funyuns, 2 Sundrop sodas and a snickers candy bar.  She steps up to the officers and looks harshly at them.  "What's wrong officers?  Do you have any info on my mother's attack?"  Officer Stone steps up, eyeballing Cassie from head to toe.  "And you must be, the daughter?"  Cassie gives Officer Stone the side eye, "And you must be something your mother forgot to swallow. you need to back the fuck up, before I reverse that call and shove your ass back where you belong."  Cassie sits down the snacks on the chair Hunter was sitting in moments ago.  "I am waiting for an answer.  Do you have the Bastard that attacked my mother?"  Officer Hernandez steps up between Cassie and Officer Stone.  "Here now, this will be enough.  Miss Hurst?  When you say attack, are you saying someone came in the home and physically attacked your mother?"  Cassie looks into the room where Colton and Hunter stand, facing Summer.  "What I am saying is, this was no accident, any damn moron can see it."  She looks over to Officer Stone.  "I want the fucker found, before we get the chance to do it ourselves. You are the law, don't make me a vigilante."    "Now you can either do the job you are being paid for."  She now turns to Officer Stone. "OR you can tell your boss I will do mine."  Cassie bends over to pick up the snacks as she turns to the officers once again.  "You may exit my presence now."  She stands as Officer Hernandez taps Stone on the shoulder to motion him to leave.  Stone turns once more speaking to Cassie.  "I'll be seeing you again, Hurst daughter."

As Stone whispers those words he bumps into William as he comes around the corner. He gives Stone a side eye but keeps walking. He sees Cassie standing there picking her snacks back up. He walks over and hands her a dozen doughnuts and he is carrying a tray with four coffees. William looks at Cassie and stares for a second. "So, how is your mom doing? I went back and fixed your truck. It was nothing major. It is outside. I going to call an Uber and head back, unless you need something I can help with?"

Cassie smiles and shakes her head playfully.  "So, not only do I owe you for my shoes, I'm buying doughnuts and coffee too?"  She lets out a small laugh.  "I'm playing..and thank you, you can help me bring them to the room if you like. " Cassie steps into the room with William close behind.  She taps Colton on the shoulder and hands him the candy bar.  Colton sees William standing there with his hands full and immediately rolls his eyes.  Cassie now taps Hunter on the arm.  "Here Daddy, I got you something to eat."  She hands him the bag of chips and the soda.  "Daddy, this is William." She turns to William, "I don't even know your last name, asshole.”  She smiles while she nudges him in the arm.  "He was nice enough to bring me here when the truck messed up on me."

 

Hunter looks over the boy. "Who are you boy and how did you meet my daughter?" William stands tall and looks Hunter straight in eye. "My name is William Barnes, Sir. I met this young lady when she was having some issues with her truck. She brought it to my father's garage, she seemed to be having a hard time, so I just gave her a lift here sir. I was just here dropping it off since I got fixed this morning." Hunter looks at his watch. He looks over to Cassie and then back at William. "Boy, it is only 9:30 am. I guess it was not that big of an issue." William with a knowing smile looks at Hunter. "Well, I started after I got back from bringing her here. There has been a recall on these trucks. There was an issue with the head gasket. It would lose compression and that would make it lose power and slow down or even stall the engine. Luckily my father had the parts to fix it. So, since it was a factory issue, it won't cost her anything.  I told my dad, since he owns the place, that I was going to bring it back to her. He had no issue with it since she is your daughter. He told me he has known your family for years, sir."

Cassie turns her head to Hunter with wide eyes and a smile.  "San An isn't that much of a big town after all now, is it Daddy?  She takes the cups of coffee from William's hand and places it on the small nightstand beside Summer's bed.  She looks at William and nods her head, motioning him to come close.  "This is who all the fuss is over.  This is my mom, Summer."  She reaches for her hand and gives her hand a kiss.  "I wish she would wake up."

William looks at Cassie then at Summer. "Nice to meet you ma'am. I hope you feel better soon." William steps back and turns to Cassie. "Well, I guess I should get out of your hair." Colton looks at William. "Yeah, we have to go get my dad some fresh clothes." William speaks up. "Well, if you need me to, I can take Cassie to get them for you guys." Hunter looks at his clothes. "Damn, I just need a shirt. This one has her blood on it." William starts to walk out the door. "I have something out in the truck in my bag. It might be a bit worn, but it is a good shirt, and it should fit." Colton, Hunter and Cassie look at each other. Colton looks at Hunter. "We need to get rid of the shirt you are wearing. That jerkoff Stone wanted it too quickly. There is something off with that guy. Leave it to me, I will take care of it. Did you notice how quickly everything changed when I mentioned there were cameras at the house?" Just then William knocks on the door and comes back in. He walks to Hunter and hands him a blue T-shirt. Hunter looks at the shirt and smiles. He pulls off his blood-stained shirt and puts on the shirt William gave him. He smoothed it out, and patted William on the back. "Why do you have this shirt boy?" William looked at Hunter and answered. "That was the battalion I was in when I was in the Navy." Hunter just starts to laugh. "Me too boy. The Fearless 74. Well at least you aren't Hollywood sand crab." William laughs. "No sir CM1 Barnes at your service." Colton and Cassie smile at each other. Hunter looks at the boy. "BU1 Hurst. Thanks for the shirt boy." "No problem, sir. You can keep it if you like." Hunter walks over to Summer and kisses her forehead and looks at all the kids. "I have to go call her brother. "We are going need him here." Hunter walks out of the room.

Colton looks at William. "Dude thanks for that. He has been out of it since I got here. I know we got off on the wrong foot, but you are okay." William holds out his hand and Colton shakes it. Colton grabs the bloody shirt and walks out of the room. " I will take of his old shirt."

Cassie smiles, she looks over to her mom and strokes her hair.  "Happy Mother's Day, Mom..we should not be celebrating you in here..but, If she was awake right now, she would have kicked someone's ass for bringing her in here looking a hot mess."  Cassie took her leg and slightly kicked William's foot.  "Thanks for doing that for my dad.  he seems to like you, so far."  she winks.  "But I still think you are an asshole Mr. Barnes."  She reaches for his arm and they both step outside the room.