it took a great deal, but she only nodded when he mentions nate and jonas. it was no secret at this point, but it still hurt to think about, that nate could do something so horrendous. but now, she was far more worried about Tommy. she listens, hugging her knees to her chest at first once she’s down and sitting next to him. as she listens, she doesn’t realize, but her eyes become more and more confused, not at his explanation, but at why. she didn’t pretend to know what their grief had done to them, she knew grief all too well after her dad was killed, and knew it affected people in hard ways. when he opened his eyes, cassie didn’t know what to say, instead moving to lay next to him, wrapping her arms around his middle as she hugged him. she squeezes as he continues, but waits until he’s done to speak.
“rein in the getaway car of thoughts for a sec,” her voice is gentle, and she moves so she’s looking up towards his face, still hugging him, “you matter. you count. you’re valid. we care about you. and you’re allowed to have feelings just like everyone else, Tommy. i want you, i like your feelings, you’re so important,” she could spend the whole time reassuring him if he’d let her, but she knows there’s more to what he said, “i wish i had answers for why that all happened. i know that being an Avenger, young or not, is complicated, but you never stopped being a Young Avenger, Tommy. there’s no way, i know that. you wouldn’t be thinking about our values if not. but… i also know that people do straight up shitty things while grieving,” the curse is rare coming from the girl, “and i think that you have a right to be angry, and feel whatever you’re feeling,” she squeezes his middle again, “i can’t imagine the team without you. I know it’s selfish, but I don’t want to. and now that we’re all together, we have a chance to make things right again, at least a little bit,” because she’s all too aware things still don’t feel completely right without Jonas or Eli. she pauses, curling in closer to him, “please don’t think you don’t matter, Tommy. you mean so much to me.”
Tommy wraps an arm loosely around Cassie in response to her hug. With his free hand he wipes at his eyes. “Look at what you did Cassie, I’m leaking,” Tommy jokes because he has to. He needed to do something to at least slightly distance himself from this emotional breakdown. “Easier said than when that car is going 900 miles per hour,” Tommy says as he gives her a light squeeze. Once she gets properly into her speech Tommy does fall silent though, listening to her as closely as she had listened to him, it was only fair.
“Of course you care Cassie, you’re an actual angel,” he says softly as his head leans against hers. Tommy takes a deep breath, in through the nose and out through the mouth the exact way all of those exercises say to. It doesn’t help him, except to make him feel like he’s successfully made a token effort at calming himself down. “And Cassie I love you, but you can’t just come back and act like nothing ever happened,” Tommy keeps his tone calm even with those relatively harsh words. It wasn’t like it was Cassie fault that everything had changed, and it was no one’s fault but his own that he’d left his emotions to fester for so long that he’d long passed both his breaking point and the point where it actually made sense to talk about them.
