Extra: Sisters in Change
Taking a short break from the main storyline to offer this side story!
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Sisters in Change Mac & Cass
Mac catches up with Cass just outside the back door. She teleports from the step to just in front of Cass, who stops abruptly, rocking back on her heels. Her jaw is set tightly, the muscle twitching. “You didn’t have to follow me,” Cass snaps.
“I’m not coming out here to yell at you,” Mac says quietly. She puts both hands up, trying to show that she’s not carrying any weapons other than words. She doesn’t want to argue, not this time, not like when she first found out that Cass had any idea about SD. She’s got a better idea what they were arguing about than she did before, after all. “How much did you actually know about SD before today?”
“And if I don’t want to talk about it?” Cass tosses her head, ponytail swinging. Her arms are crossed, her head slightly tilted. Mac thinks she’s ready to run, but it’s hard to imagine Cass running away from anything.
Punching her in the face and stalking off angrily? Mac can imagine that. She keeps her hands up just in case she needs to protect herself.
“Then I guess we don’t talk about it,” Mac agrees. It’s a lie, of course, but she’s had negotiation training, so she can start from the point of concession. They don’t have to stay there. “I don’t think we should let it fester, though. You know it’s going to come up again, with everyone else. This is going to be one of those known secrets soon enough, and you’re going to need to decide if you’re going to keep doing what you’ve been doing. And I’m probably the only person you know from the other side who can give you any perspective to help you make that decision.”
Cass looks back at the house, her lips pursed thinly. She reaches into her pocket and slips her phone into her hand. She goes as far as to unlock it before she stops, staring at it.
“Dax has a meet today, right?” Mac asks gently. She knows Dax and Nate left early to go back to PHU for the day for a home track meet. They woke her up talking in the hall, and she’d never quite managed to go back to sleep. Besides. Someone was snoring and she couldn’t quite manage to tune it out, not in a place like this which has her inner soldier on high alert.
Cass shoves her phone back in her pocket. “Yes,” she says sharply. “He’s with Nate.”
“He’s at a meet,” Mac replies, because while Nate’s his teammate, it’s not about that.
Cass rolls her eyes. “Whatever. They run together all the time.”
“Nate’s not all bad.”
The look Cass gives her is dark and angry, brows furrowed and gaze narrowed. “I know,” she says, clipping each word. “He fed me. He listened to me. He’s good. I get it. I’m not jealous.”
She’s jealous. But maybe this isn’t the time to call her on it, since Cass is also using it to avoid talking about SD.
Mac touches Cass’s arm, waiting until Cass’s expression eases before she asks, “May I?” When Cass nods, Mac teleports them both to a bench sitting under a tree, off to one side behind the house. There’s a small plaque on the bench—for cats on sunny days—and she hopes that the cats of both Clan and feline variety forgive them for using it.
Cass sits when Mac does, her knees together and hands folded. “So we’re not yelling at each other,” she says.
Mac turns to straddle the bench, facing Cass. “And we’re not lying to each other, either. Nothing omitted,” she says, nodding as Cass does. “My stepfather is Delwin Palmer,” Mac continues. “He’s ex-military, but still highly involved with the Sigma Delta project, both in a leadership role and as a government liaison. For a time he was both my boss and my dad.”
Cass nods. One hand comes up, motions for Mac to continue.
“Your father is Ramsey Ferris. He’s in procurement. For SD.” Mac remembers Ferris all too well, and until that moment when her dad had mentioned meeting Cass, she’d never put two and two together. “I was still pretty young when I met him the first time. I’d already been recruited, of course. I was in training. I knew I was going into the military. And he’d just recruited Scott Harrington, a Giver of Pain who was right about my age. Your father hand-selected my partner.” She gives it a beat, then adds, “Who died about five years later.”
Cass looks down at her clasped hands. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. The fact that he died isn’t your fault, or your father’s fault,” Mac admits. She sits carefully next to Cass, balancing to keep herself from leaning too close. “It’s my dad’s fault, because I think he knew what he was sending us into for an assignment. Or I think he knew more than he said he did, anyway. Not the point here.”
It would be easy to get swallowed by memories of Scott. It’s been years, and the pain’s still fresh when Mac reaches into that place in heart. It’s better to just leave it there.
“The point is, you’re a source for your dad, aren’t you?” Mac can’t be positive, but it makes sense with everything she’s seen over the years. The intense fascination Cass shows in anyone Talented. The way she watches and interacts. And the way she holds herself just a little bit apart. “You find Talented people and you let your father know about them. And sometimes he’s able to recruit them.”
Cass tugs her ponytail free from the tie, combs her fingers through her hair. She sits upright, calmly pulling it all neatly back and tying it up again except for a few strands that escape, frizzing around her face. “I’m going to stop,” she says quietly. “I was already going to stop. I’m going on a trip this summer, to find my sister. With Dax and Nate, and I don’t even really know how it came up, but it did. And when my dad finds out what I’m doing—that I’m looking for Minnie—he’s going to disown me. So it won’t matter if I keep being the good daughter or not. I don’t even know if I’ll be back here. He might throw me out, and stop paying for PHU. He might try to—I don’t know. He might try to blackmail me. Tell me I have to find him more people if I want to stay at school. It’s just been so….” Her head drops, shoulders slumped. “God, I hate this. I hate that I’m a part of it.”
Mac can’t remember ever seeing Cass like this. She’s always a fighter, standing there with a chip on her shoulder or a bright smile like armor. She feels defeated now. Mac reaches across the space, covers Cass’s tightly clasped hands with one of her own. “Does Dax know?”
Cass flinches. “Do you really think he’d be with me if he did?” she asks tightly. “And yes, I’m aware that if this is going to be one of those open secrets our house is so fond of, I’d better find a way to tell him. Which I will. When he’s back after the meet.” She seems to curl around herself even more tightly. “I’m not going to let it fester. And telling him means telling Nate, I know. They really are… they’ve become good friends while they’ve run together. I’m not jealous of him like I think he’s going to steal Dax away from me. I’m secure in our relationship. I’m just not used to not coming first,” she admits softly.
Mac doesn’t think that Nate comes first for Dax. She can’t imagine Dax prioritizing anyone over Cass, since he hasn’t before. But she can imagine that Cass sees less attention as not being first. “Do you think letting him in to the parts of you that you held back will help?” Mac asks. She tries to be gentle, but even she’s been able to see it from the outside. As close as Cass and Dax were, Cass always had that wall around her. That sense that there was something that she was never letting anyone touch.
Mac just knows what it was now.
Cass shrugs.
“Okay.” Mac exhales roughly, patting Cass’s hands. “We need to make some kind of a plan.”
Cass looks up, brow furrowing. “What kind of a plan?”
“The kind of plan that determines where we go next, how we keep you from getting in trouble for this, and how we can make sure everyone involved stays safe,” Mac says firmly. “I was part of the SD program. I know what they did in terms of the military action, and the kinds of resources they had at their disposal. I know how they deployed us, and how they were working with us both overseas and domestically. I paid enough attention to know things about SD that Dad doesn’t think I know. And I’m guessing you know more than your dad thinks, too.”
“He didn’t tell me who you were,” Cass says. She slowly pulls her hands back, straightens her back. “In case you think he did.”
“I didn’t. You were as surprised as everyone else when that came out,” Mac says. “But you knew I was Talented. You just didn’t know how.”
Cass nods. “Exactly. That’s how it works. And he knew I knew you, so he must have—he must have guessed.”
Guessed isn’t the word Mac would use for it. In fact, she’d place a bet that Cass is in her sorority on purpose. But that’s a discussion for another time when Cass is ready to hear just how manipulative SD can be.
Mac’s tempted to ask Cass about other people who are hiding Talents in plain sight, but that would be wrong and rude. Outing them would be very wrong, even if they might need the help in whatever this fight is they’re starting into with the Shadows and the Dreamscape.
At least she can be fairly certain none of them are Dreamwalkers.
Unless one of them is whoever Nikita started out reacting to.
Mac covers her face with one hand. “Sera dropped that like a bomb,” she mutters, trying to work through it by speaking aloud. “She’s told them that yes, there’s a government conspiracy and that they know more about Talent than they’re saying. Which impacts everything we’re doing, possibly, so yes, it probably needed to be said.”
“You didn’t have to tell them it’s your stepfather,” Cass points out, a hint of her usual sharp lack of tact slipping into her voice.
Mac shrugs. “In the end, yeah, I did. They’d figure it out soon enough, and this way, if I can get them into the data they want, they know how we’re doing it. And the risks involved.”
“Do you think they need that?”
“I think Sera thinks they need that,” Mac says slowly. “I think we need to cooperate, Cass. You should talk to the people you’ve sniffed out, see if any of them are willing to help out if you think they can help. More importantly, you need to promise them some privacy. Help them avoid being drafted.” She hesitates before asking carefully, “How many of them have you already told your father about?”
Cass catches her lower lip in her teeth, looks away. “All of them. Just the basic information—their name, that they’re Talented, that they aren’t out about it. I have a list on a secure server. I add information as I get it. I… I spend a lot of time watching people. And some people still are under the radar. I get the feeling that some people are Talented and don’t even know it yet. Like—” She stops abruptly, shakes her head. “I need to stop doing the wrong thing,” she mutters.
“Can you erase the file?”
Cass nods, then shakes her head. “I can, but it’s probably backed up somewhere.”
“If we tell Sera about it, she might be able to dig her way in and scrub it completely.” Mac hooks her arm in Cass’s, and tugs her up as she starts to stand. “We’re going to go talk to her about it now, and we’re going to go make a difference. We’ll start by scrubbing records, and that’ll give Sera access to a secure SD space to dig for more information. We may belong to something wrong, but we have a chance now to fix it.” She slides her arm free from Cass, and offers her hand instead. “Sisters?”
Cass takes her hand, then pulls Mac in close, wrapping her arms around. “Sisters,” Cass murmurs against the side of Mac’s head.
It’s a good sign. In the end, maybe they’ll come out of this okay.